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CHRIST  AND  SCIENCE 


The   Cole  Lectures  for  igo6 
delivered  before  Vanderh'tlt  University 

Christ  and  Science 

Jesus  Christ  Regarded  as 
the  Centre  of  Science 


By 
FRANCIS  HENRY/SMITH 

Professor  in  the  University  of  f^irginia 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 


London 


AND 


Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

Second  Edition 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  35  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:     loo    Princes    Street 


5^0 


THE  COLE  LECTURES 

THE  late  Colonel  E.  W.  Cole  of  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, donated  to  Vanderbilt  University  the  sum 
of  five  thousand  dollars,  afterwards  increased  by 
his  widow  to  ten  thousand ;  the   design  and  conditions 
of  which  gift  are  stated  as  follows  : 

"  The  object  of  this  fund  is  to  establish  a  foundation 
for  a  perpetual  Lectureship  in  connection  with  the  Bib- 
lical Department  of  the  University,  to  be  restricted  in  its 
scope  to  a  defense  and  advocacy  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. The  lectures  shall  be  delivered  at  such  inter- 
vals, from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  deemed  best  by  the 
Board  of  Trust ;  and  the  particular  theme  and  lecturer 
shall  be  determined  by  nomination  of  the  Theological 
Faculty  and  confirmation  of  the  College  of  Bishops  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  Said  lecture 
shall  always  be  reduced  to  writing  in  full,  and  the  man- 
uscript of  the  same  shall  be  the  property  of  the  Univer- 
sity, to  be  published  or  disposed  of  by  the  Board  of 
Trust  at  its  discretion,  the  net  proceeds  arising  there- 
from to  be  added  to  the  foundation  fund,  or  otherwise 
used  for  the  benefit  of  the  Biblical  Department." 


546244 


*ES  avrou  kal  SI  abrou  fial  e?c   olotov  tA 
■jtdvTa.    auTw  ^  So^a  ei^  tow?  aiiuvaq.   dfirjv. 

Rom.  xi.  36. 


JIae  fibi  SacrosanctcB  mentis 
illius  vivam   referunt  iynaginem,  ipsumquc 
Christum,  loquentem,  sanantem,  resurgentem, 
denique  totum  ita  presentem  reddunt,  ut  minus 
visurus    sis    si   coram    oculis    conspicias. 

Erasmus. 


Contents 

The  Old  Testament  in  its  Rela- 
tion TO  Physical  Science 

The  New  Testament  in  its  Rela 
TioN  TO  Physical  Science 

Scientific  Hints  in  Both  Testa- 
ments      .... 


Christ's  Love  of  Nature 

Christ     the     Model     for    the 
Teacher  of  Science 

The  Great  Teacher  Himself  . 


55 

III 
147 

179 
211 


LECTURE  I 

THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  ITS  RE- 
LATION   TO    PHYSICAL    SCIENCE 


LECTURE  I 

THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  ITS  RE- 
LATION   TO    PHYSICAL    SCIENCE 

TO  a  great  multitude  of  men,  called 
Christians,  the  greatest  fact  in  the 
world  to-day,  is  the  existence  of  the 
Christian  Church.  To  them  the  greatest 
fact  in  the  Christian  Church  is  the  presence 
of  Christ,  not  merely  by  His  precepts  and 
example,  but  His  real,  personal,  though  not 
bodily  presence.  Brahmah,  Buddha,  Con- 
fucius are  dead.  Christ,  as  His  followers 
believe,  lives  and  is  here.  In  our  solemn 
assemblies  He  is  addressed  as  though  He 
were  not  far  away.  In  the  Christian's  daily 
walk,  the  whispered  or  perhaps  unuttered 
prayer  indicates  his  belief  that  his  Master  is 
very  near  to  him.  Nay  so  close  may  be  this 
union,  that  in  a  high  sense,  but  a  very  real 
and  unmystical  sense,  Christ  may  be  said  to 
live  in  him. 

«3 


14  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

This  unique  relation  of  our  Lord  to  His 
people  becomes  transcendently  significant 
when  it  is  remembered  that  they  believe  Him 
to  be,  what  He  distinctly  claimed  to  be,  the 
greatest  personage  in  this  and  all  worlds. 
Human  language  seems  inadequate  to  ex- 
press even  the  partial  conception  of  Him 
which  alone  we  can  form.  He  is  said  to  be 
the  Word  of  God.  This  title  appears  to  in- 
clude every  possible  way  in  which  God  may 
be  manifested  to  men.  "  No  one  knoweth 
the  Father  but  the  Son  and  he  to  whom  the 
Son  will  reveal  Him."  Christ,  as  His  follow- 
ers believe,  is  the  author  of  every  revelation 
of  the  Almighty  whether  in  the  physical  or 
spiritual  world  or  in  the  written  word.  In 
every  such  disclosure  we  may  discover  the 
handiwork  and  trace  the  lineaments  of  Him 
who  is  "  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory 
and  the  express  image  of  His  person." 
They  are  all  epiphanies.  If  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  the  Divine  breath,  Christ  is  that  breath 
articulated  and  made  intelligible.  When 
God  speaks  we  hear  Christ,  and  there  is  no 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    1 5 

Other  way  to  God,  either  for  our  thought  or 
our  faith  except  through  Him. 

For  this  primacy  of  our  Lord,  let  us  listen 
to  the  Sacred  Oracles. 

"  By  the  word  of  the  Lord  were  the 
heavens  made  and  all  the  host  of  them  by 
the  breath  of  His  mouth." 

"  For  by  Him  were  all  things  created  that 
are  in  heaven  and  that  are  in  earth,  visible 
and  invisible  ...  all  things  were  created 
by  Him  and  for  Him  "  (Col.  i  :  16). 

"  By  whom  also  God  made  the  worlds " 
(Heb.  1 : 2). 

"  But  unto  the  Son  He  saith  .  .  .  Thou 
Lord  in  the  beginning  hast  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  earth  and  the  heavens  are  the  work  of 
Thine  hands  "  (Heb.  i :  10), 

"  Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  receive  glory 
and  honour  and  power,  for  Thou  hast  created 
all  things  and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  are  and 
were  created  "  (Rev.  4  :  11). 

"  All  things  were  made  by  Him  and  with- 
out Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was 
made  "  (John  i :  3). 


l6  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

These  and  other  passages  declare  that 
Christ  is  the  maker  of  all  worlds  material  and 
spiritual,  visible  and  invisible.  "  All  things" 
comprehends  universal  creation. 

If  our  Lord  be  the  maker  of  all  worlds  they 
must  bear  signs  of  Him.  Not  more  surely 
will  the  student  find  Michael  Angelo  in  his 
Moses,  or  Raphael  in  his  Transfiguration, 
Milton  in  Comus  or  Shakespeare  in  Hamlet, 
than  the  Christian  may  expect  to  find  Christ 
in  nature.  The  sciences  of  mind  and  matter 
should  to  him  bear  marks  of  the  same  author 
and  that  author  his  Lord.  If  Christ's  claim 
be  true,  the  universe  seen  and  unseen  is  a 
unit — and  its  unity  is  only  intelligible  when 
arranged  about  Him  as  a  centre.  To  the 
Christian  all  science  is  Christo-centric.  To 
refer  it  to  any  other  centre  or  to  no  centre  is 
to  introduce  confusion. 

There  are  obviously  two  ways  of  studying 
the  connection  between  the  Creator  and  His 
works. 

One  way,  the  time  honoured  way,  practiced 
from  the  beginning  is  to  start  from  the  works, 
and  by  patient  study  of  them,  pass  upward 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    1 7 

to  him.  To  prove  the  being  and  attributes 
of  the  Almighty  by  the  works  of  Nature  has 
been  the  delightful  task  of  many  of  the 
greatest  minds  of  the  Christian  era. 

This  appears  to  be  the  natural  and  ap- 
propriate way ;  to  ascend  from  the  creation 
to  the  creator :  to  climb  the  ladder,  for  we 
are  at  the  bottom,  and  beginning  there  seems 
to  be  not  only  the  humble  method  but  the 
reasonable  method. 

In  my  boyhood,  no  books  were  oftener 
quoted  than  the  Bridgewater  Treatises. 
There  were  eight  of  them,  written  to  win 
prizes  offered  by  the  Earl  of  Bridgewater  for 
the  best  essays  proving  the  being  and  per- 
fections of  God  by  the  works  of  Nature.  A 
great  contemporary  philosopher,  Dr.  Bab- 
bage,  was  dissatisfied  with  them,  and  with- 
out seeking  a  prize,  published  a  ninth  Bridge- 
water  Treatise  to  remedy  the  supposed 
defects.  His  dissatisfaction  seemed  to  be  a 
prelude  to  a  widening  sense  of  inadequacy 
in  the  argument,  and  the  Bridgewater  Trea- 
tises are  rarely  heard  of  now.  This  has 
somehow  been  the  fate  of  numerous  other 


l8  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

similar  essays.  Indeed  the  reason  is  not  fai 
to  seek.  Nature  is  not  only  a  very  vast  and 
difficult  field,  only  in  very  small  part  known, 
but  it  is  a  rapidly  widening  field.  Much  of 
the  knowledge  of  one  age  is  merely  a  step- 
ping stone  to  be  used  in  the  next  age  for 
climbing  higher  and  then  to  be  abandoned. 
A  few  great  leading  principles  are  perma- 
nent, but  the  details  and  the  filling  in  are 
constantly  modified  and  improved.  Thus  it 
comes  about  that  an  interpretation  of  one 
age  becomes  valueless  in  a  subsequent  one, 
because  the  thing  interpreted  is  found  to  be 
no  fact.  So  it  has  happened  that  some 
serious  thinkers,  by  no  means  sceptical  or 
agnostic,  have  questioned  the  possibility  of 
proving  the  existence  of  Deity  from  the 
phenomena  of  the  material  world,  and  a  few 
free  thinkers  have  stoutly  denied  it.  One  of 
the  ablest  of  these,  however,  Mr.  George  J. 
Romanes,  near  the  close  of  his  life  recalled 
his  scepticism  on  this  point.  Leaving  out  of 
account  all  lesser  considerations,  a  large  view 
of  the  universe  disclosed  to  him  such  undeni- 
able, irresistible  evidences  of  plan  and  design, 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    1 9 

that  his  truth-loving  soul  bowed  reverently 
before  the  Almighty,  though  seen  only 
through  this  one  rift  in  the  clouds.  From  an 
honest  doubter  he  became  an  honest  believer. 
The  great  Apostle  Paul  believed  in  a  Natural 
Theology.  He  held  the  wicked  Romans  to 
be  without  excuse,  because  those  invisible 
things,  the  eternal  power  and  Godhead  of 
the  Almighty — were  clearly  seen  by  the 
things  that  are  made.  To  the  men  of  Lystra 
he  had  before  declared  that  the  goodness  of 
God,  as  seen  in  Nature,  bears  witness  of  Him. 
"  For  He  did  good  and  gave  us  rain  from 
heaven  and  fruitful  seasons." 

We  all  remember  too  how  the  great  Eng- 
lish prelate,  Butler,  used  the  Constitution  and 
Course  of  Nature  as  a  powerful  defense 
against  the  foes  of  religion  both  natural  and 
revealed.  Yet  after  all,  to  find  the  Creator 
from  His  works,  is  like  trying  to  find  the 
centre  of  a  circle  from  its  circumference : 
nay,  considering  the  smallness  of  our  knowl- 
edge of  those  works,  from  a  very  brief  part 
of  the  circumference.  As  a  practical  matter 
the  chances  are  all  against  our  striking  the 


20  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

centre  by  any  straight  line  drawn  from  the 
circumference.  The  process,  exact  only  in 
theory,  becomes  merely  approximate  in 
practice. 

We  propose  a  new  way.  Let  us  begin  at 
the  centre  and  go  to  the  circumference.  We 
cannot  miss  it,  if  we  go  straight.  Let  us 
start  from  Christ,  who  claims  to  be  and 
whom  Christians  believe  to  be  the  centre  of 
the  created  universe.  I  shall  consider  only 
the  material  world,  leaving  to  abler  hands  the 
corresponding  inquiry  as  to  the  spiritual 
world.  If  Christ  be  the  maker  of  the  visible 
universe,  what  kind  of  a  universe  have  we  a 
right  to  expect  it  to  be?  Judging  by  His 
character  and  His  declarations,  what  sort  of  a 
world  has  He  made  ?  Is  it  the  world  we  have  ? 
If  so  far  as  our  limited  faculties  and  our  ad- 
mittedly partial  knowledge  enable  us  to  see, 
the  world  around  us  is  in  great  essential  facts 
about  which  we  are  certain,  the  same  world 
we  looked  for  if  Christ  be  its  author  and 
centre,  the  correspondence  cannot  fail  to  give 
satisfaction  to  the  Christian,  and  to  the  hon- 
est sceptic  perhaps  help  towards  rest. 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    21 

In  trying  to  follow  out  this  argument,  let 
us  not  forget  that  humility  becomes  the  in- 
quirer, for  while  we  know  some  things  cer- 
tainly about  our  Lord  and  His  universe  there 
remain  to  us  possibly  infinite  treasures  of 
knowledge  of  each,  to  be  slowly  gained  as 
the  years  move  on.  This  fact  should  not  pre- 
vent our  making  use  of  the  truth  so  far  as  we 
have  it,  being  confident  that  growing  light 
will  only  help  us  to  see  better  the  things  we 
already  see  well. 

Beginning  now  at  the  centre,  we  recognize 
that  our  external  knowledge  of  Christ  is  de- 
rived, not  from  tradition  nor  from  secular 
writings,  but  from  the  Bible.  It  is  one  of  the 
strangest  facts  in  human  history  that  a  per- 
sonage so  exalted  and  unique,  dropping  words 
such  as  the  world  might  well  stop  its  busy 
life  to  hear,  should  have  attracted  no  attention 
from  contemporary  secular  historians  or 
philosophers.  Tacitus  had  time  to  enlarge 
upon  the  acts  of  an  obscure  tribe  of  bar- 
barians, or  the  doings  of  an  infamous  court 
favourite,  but  no  eye  or  ear  for  acts  and  words 
which  have  altered  the  map  of  the  world  and 


22  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

changed  the  course  of  history.  The  Bible  and 
the  Bible  alone  is  our  biography  of  Christ. 
The  Old  Testament  is  a  light  shining  forward  : 
the  New  Testament  a  light  shining  backward 
— both  concentrated  upon  and  revealing  the 
same  person ;  and  neither  is  complete  with- 
out the  other.  The  Lord  Himself  said: 
"  Search  the  Scriptures  (that  is  the  Old  Testa- 
ment) for  they  are  they  which  testify  of  Me." 
The  testimony  of  the  two  Testaments  as  to 
our  Saviour  is  so  full  that  we  need  no  help 
from  tradition  or  secular  sources.  In  a  re- 
markable passage  the  great  Erasmus  declares 
that  "  these  Scriptures  give  us  a  living  image 
of  that  Divine  being  and  reveal  Christ  Him- 
self speaking,  healing,  dying  and  rising 
again  :  indeed  they  make  Him  in  His  entire 
being  so  vividly  present  to  us  that  we  see  Him 
better  than  if  He  stood  before  us  bodily."  In 
a  glow  of  emotion  this  great  scholar  exclaims, 
"  Let  us  thirst  for  these  sacred  writings  with 
all  our  soul,  let  us  embrace  them,  die  in  them 
at  last  and  be  changed  into  them,  for  what  we 
study  that  we  are." 
To   ask  therefore  what  is  the  relation  of 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    23 

Christ  to  Science  is  to  ask  what  is  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Bible  to  Science.  Its  declarations 
are  His  declarations.  Its  attitude  on  any 
question  is  His  attitude.  What  then  does  the 
Bible  teach  us  as  to  the  external  world  ?  The 
various  books  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  are 
very  different  in  the  number  of  their  refer- 
ences to  that  world.  Some  of  these  books, 
like  Job,  Ecclesiastes,  the  Psalms  and  the  dis- 
courses of  our  Lord  are  rich  in  them.  Others 
like  the  historical  books,  many  of  the  proph- 
ecies and  the  Epistles,  have  very  few. 

These  references  to  external  nature  are 
partly  illustrative  and  rhetorical,  for  the  Bible 
is  not  a  text-book  of  science,  and  such  al- 
lusions are  only  auxiliary  to  its  high  purpose. 
Being  illustrative  in  large  part,  to  be  intelligi- 
ble, they  must  conform  to  the  views  however 
unscientific,  which  prevailed  among  the  peo- 
ple addressed.  Else  instead  of  bringing  light 
to  the  subject,  they  would  have  brought 
darkness — and  would  iave  been  adumbra- 
tions and  not  illustrations.  With  these  rhe- 
torical uses  of  Nature,  our  argument  has 
nothing  to  do. 


24  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

There  remain  two  other  classes  of  state- 
ments with  regard  to  the  physical  universe. 
The  first  of  these  are  the  so-called  miraculous 
events^-events  which  are  "  little  wonders " 
because  they  involve  effects  unexpected  and 
apparently  without  a  physical  cause.  A 
proper  study  of  them  requires  a  contempla- 
tion of  both  worlds,  material  and  spiritual,  and 
a  discussion  of  the  possibility  of  the  transit  of 
energy  from  one  to  the  other.  This  would 
take  us  far  beyond  the  humble  task  we  have 
proposed  to  ourselves  at  this  time.  Before 
passing  from  it,  may  we  not  be  pardoned  for 
saying,  that  a  miracle  is  not  a  violation  of  the 
order  of  Nature  ?  What  is  the  order  of  Na- 
ture ?  Is  it  a  fixed  succession  of  events  ?  So 
it  seems  perhaps  to  the  young  astronomer. 

In  those  vast  abysses  of  space,  where  giant 
suns  and  clusters  and  nebulous  clouds  pursue 
their  solitary  majestic  courses,  at  such  huge 
intervals  as  to  make  collisions  all  but  impos- 
sible, we  have  a  spectacle  nearest  to  a  perma- 
nent picture,  of  anything  known  to  us.  Fixed 
stars,  we  call  them.  For  ages  they  present 
to  the  observer  the  same  patterns  and  fig- 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    25 

ures.  The  shepherd  boy,  David,  would 
know  our  Orion  and  Arcturus  were  he  here 
to  gaze  upon  them.  Now  and  then,  how- 
ever, to  the  minute  scrutiny  of  the  modem 
telescope,  a  sudden  interruption  of  this  sta- 
bility occurs.  A  new  star  blazes  forth  or  one 
long  known  vanishes.  A  mighty  collision 
has  occurred.  The  fixed  succession  has  been 
violated,  but  the  order  of  Nature  remains  un- 
disturbed, for  the  same  laws  of  motion  which 
are  revealed  in  the  uninterrupted  march  of 
some,  required  the  collision  of  others,  and,  by 
competent  intelligence,  might  have  been  fore- 
seen for  ages.  Such  catastrophes  belong  to 
the  order  of  nature.  When  we  descend  to 
the  earth  this  order  becomes  complicated. 
There  are  great  successions  of  phenomena, 
like  the  seasons,  the  ocean  currents,  the  trade 
winds,  which  remain  the  same,  and  may  be 
foreseen  ;  along  with  them,  however,  are  hun- 
dreds of  events  less  amenable  to  prediction. 
Especially  is  the  variation  from  a  fixed  order 
manifested  where  man's  interference  is  pos- 
sible. Rivers  are  moved  from  old  channels  ; 
Niagaras  are  taken  from  spectacular  leaping 


26  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

and  harnessed  to  humdrum  work ;  seasons 
are  modified  by  destruction  of  forests  ;  seas 
are  united  by  great  canals  ;  and  many  things 
made  to  happen  which  never  happened  before. 
In  all  these  the  fixed  succession  of  events 
is  constantly  abrogated.  Is  the  order  of  Na- 
ture violated  by  such  interruption  ?  On 
the  contrary,  would  not  that  order  be  violated 
if  such  interruption  did  not  occur,  when  the 
conditions  have  been  changed  ?  The  intro- 
duction of  volition  (touching  the  triggers  of 
unused  stores  of  potential  energy),  must  bring 
new  things  to  pass,  and  the  order  of  the  world 
would  be  destroyed  if  the  old  things  kept  on. 
The  true  order  of  Nature  is,  that  every  effect 
must  have  a  cause,  and  every  cause  must 
have  its  effect.  Hence  if  a  new  cause  be  in- 
troduced, a  new  effect  must  arise,  if  the  order 
of  Nature  is  preserved.  A  miraculous  event 
is  then  a  violation  of  natural  order  only  if  it 
can  be  proved  to  be  causeless.  The  order  of 
Nature  is  synonymous  with  an  unchanged 
succession  of  events,  only  so  long  as  no  new 
cause  is  introduced.  If  God  intervenes,  a 
miracle  belongs  to  that  order. 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    2^ 

There  remains  to  us  in  the  Bible  a  third 
class  of  statements  as  to  the  material  world 
comparatively  few  in  number,  which  are  not 
illustrations  but  revelations.  They  are  posi- 
tive declarations  which  reach  to  the  reality  of 
the  things  we  see,  and  which,  being  in  the 
Bible,  must  be  true  of  any  universe  which 
Christ  has  made.  They  may  not  be  con- 
formable to  the  science  of  the  times  in  which 
they  were  written,  nor  to  that  of  many  ages 
afterwards.  The  boldness  of  these  declara- 
tions is  such  that  if  they  were  made  in  a  mere 
human  uninspired  document,  it  would  argue 
a  reckless  folly  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  in- 
conceivable in  a  person  of  ordinary  judgment. 
No  human  being  would  venture  on  positive 
statements  of  novel  character  which  he  need 
not  make,  and  which,  once  made,  might  im- 
peril the  credibility  of  his  entire  treatise.  But 
if  a  Divine  being  speaks  there  is  no  room  for 
caution  or  timidity.  The  boldness  which 
would  be  weak  in  a  man,  is  the  proper  tone 
and  sign  of  a  God. 

We  ask  your  attention  to  some  passages 
of  this  kind  in  the  Old  Testament.     That 


28  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Testament  opens  grandly  with  a  tremendous 
statement  as  to  the  material  world.  Even  in 
our  English  version  the  words  roll  out  with 
indescribable  majesty :  "In  the  beginning, 
God  created  the  Heaven  and  the  E^th." 
The  material  universe  is  declared  by  the 
Bible  not  to  be  eternal.  It  began  in  time, 
and  it  owed  its  origin  not  to  physical  causes. 
This  origin  is  asserted  to  be  superphysical. 
The  Bible  declares  that  the  chain  of  physical 
causation  reaching  backwards  farther  and 
farther,  is  not  endless.  It  stops  at  a  definite 
moment  in  the  past  and  at  that  end  is  an  act 
of  God. 

What  a  contrast  is  seen  between  these  clear 
simple  words  of  the  Bible,  and  the  obscure, 
non-committal  and  sparing  references  re- 
ported to  us  by  students  of  the  sacred  books 
of  India,  as  given  in  those  venerable  docu- 
ments with  regard  to  the  primordial  universe  I 
They  seem  to  assume  that  the  ultimate  mat- 
ter, the  Urstofi  or  Protyle  of  the  philosophers 
is  eternal,  and  that  the  beginning  of  the  world 
was  merely  the  formation  of  stars  and  worlds, 
out  of  this  everlasting  material.     In  contrast 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    29 

with  these  vague  and  dreamy  views,  our 
Holy  Book  speaks  with  a  simplicity  and  au- 
thority befitting  Divinity. 

But  the  Bible  goes  farther.  It  recognizes 
that  matter  is  not  the  only  constituent  of  the 
universe.  To  make  a  world,  the  matter  must 
be  endowed  with  power.  Matter  alone  would 
give  a  world  motionless  and  dark  and  silent. 
Matter  with  energy  gives  a  world  of  move- 
ment, shining  and  singing.  Having  just  de- 
clared the  origin  of  matter  to  be  superphys- 
ical,  the  Holy  Scripture  now  proceeds  to 
declare  the  origin  of  energy  to  be  super- 
physicaL  Of  all  the  forms  of  energy,  light  is 
the  most  universal  and  most  typical.  It  is 
therefore  selected  by  the  Old  Testament 
writer  as  the  symbol  of  all  energy.  The 
created  world  of  matter  lay  without  form  and 
void,  and  darkness  covered  the  deep.  "  And 
God  said  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
light."  Energy  is  therefore  declared  by  the 
Bible  not  to  be  eternal.  It  too,  came  into  the 
world  at  a  definite  time,  and  its  beginning 
was  not  physical  but  superphysical. 

But  matter  and  energy  will  not  make  a 


30  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

complete  world.  They  will  make  solar  sys- 
tems, with  all  their  shining  members  in  har- 
monious circulation.  It  will  be  like  a  house 
with  all  its  furniture,  but  no  inhabitant.  The 
Bible  completes  its  universe  by  adding  life  to 
matter  and  energy.  Life  too  had  a  begin- 
ning and  that  beginning  was  superphysical. 
"And  God  said,  Let  the  Earth  bring  forth 
grass :  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abun- 
dantly the  moving  creature  that  hath  life : 
Let  the  Earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature 
after  his  kind."  Finally  the  Lord  God 
formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life. 
Life,  therefore,  was  no  product  of  matter  and 
energy,  but  owed  its  origin  to  the  super- 
physical  act  of  God. 

Christ's  universe,  therefore,  is  composed  of 
matter,  energy  and  life.  No  one  of  them  is 
eternal.  They  all  originated  in  time,  and 
their  origin  is  alike  "  supernatural."  The 
"  natural  "  forces  in  Christ's  universe  cannot 
create  or  annihilate  energy,  and  therefore 
cannot  add  to  or  subtract  from  the  matter, 
the  energy,  or  the  life  that  are  put  into  it 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    31 

The  challenge  is  made.  The  gauntlet  is  cast. 
The  voice  of  Christ  is  clear.  It  was  uttered 
before  science  had  an  existence.  Matter, 
Energy  and  Life  are  superphysical  in  their 
origin,  said  the  Bible  three  thousand  years 
ago.  This  is  a  fundamental  truth  in  the 
world  which  Christ  made. 

Is  this  the  universe  we  have  ?  Do  matter, 
energy  and  life  make  it  up,  and  are  the  forces 
of  nature  as  we  have  them,  incompetent  to 
produce  either  matter  or  energy  or  life  ?  For 
two  thousand  years  after  Genesis  was  prob- 
ably written  the  answer  would  have  been  No. 
The  nineteenth  century  has  reversed  this  an- 
swer, and  we  now  say  Yes. 

The  physical  universe,  speaking  only  of 
that  portion,  possibly  only  a  small  part  of  it, 
which  is  known  to  us,  is  a  scene  of  amazing  va- 
riety and  magnificence.  Man  stands  between 
two  infinities,  one  stretching  out  above  him 
into  worlds  on  worlds  immeasurably  numer- 
ous, grand  and  distant :  the  other  descending 
beneath  him  into  smaller  and  smaller  groups 
and  constituents  :  a  universe  of  atoms  as  in- 
numerable and  complex  and  orderly  as  the 


32  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

great  orbs  above  us,  but  unlike  them  invis- 
ible. These  infinities  great  and  small  can 
only  be  studied  by  classification.  Not  indi- 
viduals, but  species,  genera,  orders,  classes, 
— are  all  we  can  at  large  describe  or  learn. 
The  material  world  is  a  wonderful  picture. 
The  photographs  of  the  starry  heavens  each 
giving  a  small  portion  of  the  great  celestial 
vault,  disclose  a  richness  surpassing  the 
splendid  profusion  which  even  the  telescope 
helps  the  eye  to  detect  in  the  same  field,  for 
photography  is  keener  than  vision. 

No  microscope  or  camera  can  seize  the 
other  universe.  The  atom  and  molecule,  that 
we  know  better  than  the  distant  stellar  units, 
are  seen  and  doubtless  will  ever  be  seen  only 
by  the  eye  of  faith.  In  this  vast  expanse, 
events  are  taking  place  which  strongly  sug- 
gested to  the  early  enquirers  the  fluctuating 
character  of  the  materials  of  the  world. 

The  disappearance  of  heavenly  bodies,  or 
their  appearance  where  they  were  not  before ; 
the  vanishing  and  reappearance  of  clouds, 
the  disappearance  of  fuel  in  burning,  and  of 
water  from  a  shallow  pool, — were  believed  by 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    33 

many  of  the  ancients  to  indicate  destruction 
and  reproduction  of  matter.  To  them  the 
thought  that  a  bit  of  matter  could  perish  or 
be  reproduced  was  not  only  not  untrue,  but 
was  apparently  the  verdict  of  common  sense 
and  ordinary  observation.  The  opposite 
opinion  grew  slowly  into  scientific  conscious- 
ness. 

The  close  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  open- 
ing of  the  nineteenth  century  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  era  of  the  rise  of  modern 
chemistr}\  Dalton  and  Lavoisier,  with  the 
brilliant  associates  of  the  latter  who  helped  to 
make  the  Napoleonic  times  so  remarkable, 
led  in  a  critical  study  of  the  disappearances 
and  appearances  of  matter  in  chemical  acts 
of  decomposition  and  recombination.  Bring- 
ing the  question  involved  to  the  test  of  highly 
improved  balances,  chemists  were  able  to 
show  that  in  all  the  operations  they  studied, 
there  was  no  variation  which  their  balances 
could  detect  in  the  sum  total  of  the  matter 
employed.  Such  analyses  are  the  common 
work  of  every  laboratory  in  the  world,  and 
in  the  century  since  Lavoisier  died,  millions 


34  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  these  scrutinies  have  occurred,  with  not 
the  slightest  evidence  that  a  single  atom  has 
ever  been  added  to  or  taken  from  the  aggre- 
gate in  the  world  by  natural  agencies. 

What  a  few  minds  in  the  former  ages  sus- 
pected to  be  true,  is  now  accepted  as  estab- 
lished truth.  Chemistry  has  given  us  the 
great  doctrine  called  the  Conservation  of  Mat- 
ter^ namely,  that  the  forces  of  nature  studied 
by  scientists,  can  neither  create  nor  destroy 
matter.  In  all  its  multiplied  changes  the 
alteration  is  only  of  form  and  place,  and  not  of 
total  quantity. 

An  objector  may  here  interpose  and  say 
"  Your  statement  is  based  on  the  operation  of 
weighing.  Is  your  balance  perfect?  Can 
you  weigh  an  atom  ?  If  one  were  added  to 
or  subtracted  from  the  load,  is  there  a 
balance  on  earth  that  could  detect  the  fact  ?  " 
In  reply  we  must  admit,  that  our  balances  are 
imperfect  and  that  there  are  masses  so  small 
that  the  best  balance  is  insensible  to  their 
weight.  But  we  can  with  the  balance  weigh  a 
mass  too  small  to  cause  it  to  turn.  The 
balance  is  the  most  exact  weighing  instrument 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    35 

we  have,  and  while  we  have  instruments  more 
sensitive,  we  have  none  so  steady  and  con- 
sistent as  it.  The  balance  stands  in  those 
respects  at  the  very  head  of  all  our  measuring 
apparatus.  So  sensitive  may  it  be,  that  it  is 
reported  by  a  former  head  of  the  Coast  Survey 
that  a  balance  in  possession  of  that  office 
will  indicate  a  difference  in  the  weight  of  two 
small  cubes  according  as  they  are  placed  in 
the  pan  side  by  side  or  one  upon  top  of  the 
other. 

Repeated  careful  weighings  of  the  same 
object  with  a  fine  balance  do  not  exactly 
agree,  but  the  variation  is  extremely  small. 
The  whole  number  of  results  is  found  to 
cluster  closely  about  a  mean  value  which 
is  far  less  fluctuating  in  a  number  of  trials 
than  any  individual  weighing.  The  depart- 
ures of  the  separate  weighings  from  this 
mean  are  on  both  sides  of  it,  and  there  are 
many  more  minute  variations  than  large  ones. 
This  mean  result  is  accepted  as  the  best 
value  of  the  weight  which  the  whole  series  of 
trials  gives.  Using  the  balance  thus,  chemists 
declare  that  they  can  find  no  evidence  that 


36  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

the  mass  of  a  compound  is  different  from  the 
sum  of  the  masses  of  its  constituents.  Now, 
the  balance  has  slowly  become  more  perfect 
since  Lavoisier's  time,  but  its  increased  ac- 
curacy has  not  served  to  detect  any  fault  in 
the  law  of  conservation  of  matter.  Of  course 
it  is  always  possible,  without  a  perfect  in- 
strument used  by  a  perfect  being,  to  locate  an 
objection  by  naming  a  mass  too  small  to  be 
detected :  but  it  will  strike  the  honest  thinker 
that  a  quantity  less  than  any  measurable 
quantity,  and  dwindling  as  the  instrument  is 
improved,  would  be  zero  with  a  perfect  in- 
strument and  has  no  existence. 

The  great  doctrine  of  the  Conservation  of 
Matter  is  too  often  identified  with  the  assumed 
fixity  and  permanence  of  the  so-called  elemen- 
tary bodies.  Attempts  to  transmute  the 
metals,  or  decompose  into  simpler  bodies  any 
of  the  received  elements  had  always  failed. 
Clerk-Maxwell  in  a  celebrated  essay  uses 
these  elements  as  natural  finalities,  and  as 
being  outside  of  any  possible  evolution. 
They  do  not  seem  to  have  grown  to  be  what 
they  are.     Yet  other  great  philosophers  were 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    37 

not  of  that  opinion,  for  Faraday  confessed  he 
had  worked  at  transmutation,  and  Dumas  in 
similar  efforts  reached  some  results  that  were 
at  least  suggestive.  Indeed  it  has  constantly- 
been  declared  by  chemists  that  by  elements 
they  do  not  mean  bodies  absolutely  irreduci- 
ble, but  only  irreducible  under  existing  condi- 
tions and  by  existing  means.  At  a  previous 
period  of  the  earth,  and  even  now  in  our  Sun 
or  other  stellar  systems,  some  of  these  bodies 
may  be  replaced  by  simpler  constituents. 
The  world  was  therefore  not  unprepared  for  the 
remarkable  discovery  of  the  past  decade  that 
certain  new  bodies,  called  at  first  elements, 
were  in  a  state  of  active  molecular  change ; 
in  all  probability,  spontaneously  passing  to 
simpler  bodies,  and  evolving  surprising 
amounts  of  energy  of  radiation  in  the 
process. 

We  have  been  led  to  suspect  by  the  facts 
of  radio-activity,  that  a  few  of  our  metallic 
elements  are  not  permanent,  but  are  passing 
with  a  slowness  that  may  require  ages  for  the 
completion  of  their  history  into  lower,  simpler 
and  more  stable  forms.     Enthusiastic  theor- 


38  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

ists  snatching  these  fragments  of  truth  are, 
after  their  usual  practice,  already  running  to 
the  wildest  conjectures  as  to  the  history  of 
our  elementary  bodies,  and  see  clearly  that 
our  silver  becomes  lead  and  our  gold  changes 
to  copper. 

There  is  nothing  very  new  or  impossible  in 
the  most  extravagant  of  these  dreams. 
Chemists  have  for  long  years  made  us 
familiar  with  multitudes  of  bodies  whose 
molecules  are  easily  resolved  in  the  laboratory, 
and  spontaneously  so  in  nature  around  us, 
into  simpler  ones.  They  give  us  also  the 
contrary  phenomenon  of  constructing  from 
simple  unpromising  materials,  most  complex 
new  bodies  of  the  strangest  and  most  inter- 
esting properties.  The  gorgeous  colours  of 
the  aniline  series  are  developed  from  coal: 
and  the  tremendous  power  of  nitroglycerine 
from  harmless  beginnings.  How  easy,  then, 
is  it  for  us  to  admit  that  uranium  may  degen- 
erate into  radium  and  radium  into  helium, 
and  that  possibly  in  some  distant  star  re- 
cently, or  in  some  distant  epoch  of  our  sun's 
history,   helium    may  have  been   raised   to 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    39 

radium  and  radium  to  uranium.  Has  all  this 
anything  really  to  do  with  the  conservation  of 
matter?  Does  any  one  dream  of  making 
radium  out  of  nothing  ?  The  conservation  of 
matter  does  not  mean  the  permanence  of  any 
form  of  it  or  any  state  of  aggregation,  but  the 
preservation  of  its  total  amount.  The  great 
law  of  the  conservation  of  matter  is  no  more 
attacked  by  the  decay  of  uranium  than  by 
the  decay  of  a  leaf.  The  passage  of  matter 
from  more  intricate  to  more  elementary  forms 
has  been  universally  recognized.  Such  proc- 
esses are  only  now  extended  possibly  to 
forms  heretofore  believed  to  be  invariable. 

Should  all  the  chemical  elements  be  finally 
proved  to  have  come  originally  from  simpler 
forms  and  to  be  only  the  more  stable  and  yet 
possibly  not  final  forms  of  degradation,  it 
would,  I  believe,  be  no  shock  to  our  leading 
chemists,  who  taught  us  years  ago  that  the 
"element"  was  only  conditionally  perma- 
nent None  of  these  transformations,  actual 
or  possible,  historical  or  prophetic,  involve 
the  creation  or  annihilation  of  a  single  atom, 

A  more  serious  attack  on  the  doctrine  of 


40  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

the  conservation  of  matter  appears  in  the  re- 
cent speculations  of  certain  living  scientists 
of  great  repute.  The  times  we  live  in  are  re- 
markable for  the  number  and  eagerness  of 
scientific  enquirers.  Their  emulation  and 
restless  activity  put  a  premium  on  hypothesis. 
Scientific  restraint  and  patience  are  gone. 
Our  fathers,  like  Kepler,  could  wait  a  century 
for  an  interpreter :  but  with  us  the  slightest 
new  fact  starts  a  world  of  speculation,  and  book 
and  magazine  and  lecture  platform  resound 
with  philosophic  clamour  till  the  next  discov- 
ery directs  attention  another  way. 

A  recent  observation  of  a  very  able  man 
has  led  him  to  push  molecular  theory  far 
beyond  the  point  at  which  we  just  now  left 
it.  He  suggests  the  possibility  of  the  analysis 
of  the  elements  reaching  such  a  stage  of 
simplification  that  there  would  be  but  one 
final  substance,  and  that  would  not  be  what 
we  know  as  matter  in  the  form  of  the 
"  elements."  So  far  it  is  an  old  story.  The 
idea  of  a  single  ultimate  material  out  of 
which  all  things  are  made  was  not  unfamiliar 
to  the  ancients.     In  more  recent  times  the 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    4I 

Jesuit  father,  Boscovich,  used  it  in  a  beauti- 
ful atomic  theory,  which  as  a  static  theory 
has  never  been  approached  for  clearness  and 
fertility.  As  the  same  material  carbon  gives 
us  the  soft  black  coal,  the  hard  crystalline 
graphite  and  the  yet  harder  and  flashing 
diamond,  the  contrasted  properties  of  which 
must  be  explained  by  collocation  :  just  as  the 
humble  cottage  and  the  stately  cathedral  in 
a  city  may  be  made  of  the  same  kind  of 
bricks,  so  it  is  a  captivating  hypothesis  that 
the  endless  variety  in  nature  may  arise  from 
the  different  ways  in  which  the  same  con- 
structive material  is  used. 

But  the  brilliant  professor  goes  much 
farther.  This  ultimate  material  may  not  be 
ordinary  matter  at  all,  but  only  electricity. 
The  electric  atoms,  or  electrons  are  what  we 
know  as  negative  electricity,  the  positive 
being  merely  a  deficiency  of  negative.  The 
professor  has  most  ingeniously  imagined  a 
kinetic  atomic  theory  in  which  different 
numbers  and  arrangements  of  these  electrons 
would  constitute  molecules  of  matter  with 
many  of  the  qualities,  which  are  associated 


42  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

with  ordinary  matter,  such  as  radio-activity, 
valency  and  periodic  properties. 

To  some  it  appears  that  so  far  from  matter 
being  preserved,  this  speculation  makes  it  al- 
together vanish.  It  does,  if  you  identify 
matter  with  the  chemical  elements.  But  the 
electrons  have  mass  and  their  combinations 
do  not  create  any  new  mass.  The  molecule 
they  build  up  has  a  mass  equal  to  the  sum 
of  its  electrons.  No  one  would  more  quickly 
assert  that  the  conservation  of  matter  is  as 
true  of  the  electron  world,  as  it  is  of  the 
derived  world,  than  the  eminent  author  of 
this  new  proposition.  It  is  true  that  there 
is  one  sign  of  mass,  its  inertia,  which  we 
have  been  used  to  regard  as  invariable  as  the 
mass  itself,  but  which  in  the  new  theory  must 
be  modified.  The  apparent  inertia  of  an 
electron,  or  ultimate  electric  atom,  and  there- 
fore its  apparent  mass,  depends  on  its  speed. 

With  a  speed  approaching  that  of  light,  it 
appears  much  heavier  than  it  is.  But  when 
we  look  closer,  this  is  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  that  at  their  highest  speeds  the  ether  is 
sensibly  disturbed  and  its  inertia  is  added  to 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    43 

that  of  the  electron.  When  an  Atlantic  liner 
is  at  its  greatest  speed,  no  small  weight  of 
salt  water  is  dragged  with  it  and  increases 
its  inertia.  Yet  the  ship  itself  is  no  heavier. 
Obviously  this  peculiar  feature  of  the  electron 
theory  is  no  real  denial  of  the  proposition 
that  the  sum  total  of  matter  in  the  world  is 
not  altered  by  the  natural  processes  taking 
place  there.  Looking  ahead,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  that  the  next  step  in  the  analysis 
will  be  to  make  the  electron  out  of  the  ether 
in  which  it  moves,  and  which  supports  its 
activities,  and  at  last  we  shall  have  but  one 
thing  in  the  universe.  But  this  would  again 
not  attack  the  conservation  of  matter,  for  the 
ether  is  matter,  and  was  always  included  in 
the  law.  We  have  simply  pressed  the  de- 
composition to  its  last  stage,  but  the  tumbling 
down  of  a  house  does  not  alter  the  weight  of 
its  materials. 

Our  conclusion,  therefore,  is  that  the  cen- 
tury since  Lavoisier  died,  has  not  contradicted 
but  has  supported  the  great  truth  for  which 
he  was  sponsor.  The  scientific  world  to-day 
puts  the  doctrine  as  one  of  the  comer  stones 


44  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  our  physical  science.  The  world  we  live 
in  is  characterized  by  this  feature,  that  the 
material  of  which  it  is  made  is  not  changed 
in  amount  by  the  forces  operating  in  it.  So 
far  as  they  are  concerned  the  aggregate 
amount  of  matter  is  the  same,  yesterday,  to- 
day and  through  all  time. 

But  the  world  is  more  than  the  objects  in  it 
When  we  have  counted  the  stars  and  ex- 
hausted the  catalogue  of  terrestrial  objects,  we 
have  only  noted  a  part  and  that  the  least  part 
of  the  universe.  No  photograph,  however 
minute  and  faithful  can  represent  the  world 
except  at  one  moment.  It  is  not  a  picture  or 
panorama,  but  a  theatre.  Its  constituent 
bodies  are  not  self-defined  and  independent. 
They  are  perpetually  changing  and  their 
changes  are  due  to  and  determined  by  their 
neighbours.  What  a  body  is,  makes  a  most 
interesting  study.  What  it  can  do,  is  a  far 
nobler  and  higher  study.  The  rank  of  a 
member  of  the  material  world,  whether  sun  or 
planet,  tree  or  rock,  is  fixed  by  the  amount  of 
power  it  has  to  influence  other  bodies.  This 
power — energy,  it  was  called  by  St.  Paul 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    45 

nearly  two  thousand  years  ago — is,  though 
invisible,  the  most  precious  thing  in  the  world. 
Like  all  high  things  it  is  inexpressibly  deli- 
cate and  fugitive.  Philosophers  tell  us  that 
it  is  incessantly  passing  from  body  to  body, 
often  with  the  speed  of  light,  and  that  these 
transfers  constitute  really  the  events  of  the 
visible  world. 

The  quantity  of  energy  possessed  by  any 
one  body  is,  therefore,  in  a  state  of  incessant 
change.  That  the  sum  total  of  a  thing  so 
fluctuating  and  variable  in  individuals,  should 
in  the  aggregate  be  unchangeable,  would 
have  appeared,  a  century  ago,  a  most  ques- 
tionable proposition,  if  not  highly  improbable. 
But  before  the  guillotine  had  slain  Lavoisier,  a 
few  great  scientists  in  France,  England  and 
Germany  were  laying  the  foundation  for  a 
declaration  on  this  point  that  would  vivify 
every  department  of  science.  Newton  indeed 
had  virtually  uttered  it  more  than  a  century 
before,  but  the  statement  was  unintelligible  to 
his  readers.  It  was  left  for  the  nineteenth 
century  in  its  first  half  to  bring  to  light  the 
grand  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  energy, 


46  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

namely,  that  in  the  countless  operations  of 
Nature,  and  in  all  the  transfers  and  transfor- 
mations undergone  by  the  noble  fugitive  they 
called  energy,  there  is  no  alteration  of  its 
amount.  Natural  forces  neither  create  nor 
annihilate  energy.  They  only  pass  it  to  and 
fro.  So  far  as  they  are  concerned,  its  total 
quantity  in  the  world  is  invariable.  We  can 
follow  its  changes  in  the  simpler  phenomena 
of  visible  motions  studied  in  physics,  and  in 
the  more  hidden  processes  of  heat  and  elec- 
tricity. Here  we  can  measure  the  energy 
passing.  In  the  more  intricate  facts  of  chem- 
istry, and  finally  in  the  higher  and  yet  more 
complex  field  of  biology,  the  law  of  Conser- 
vation of  Energy  has  been  of  incalculable 
value  in  directing  lines  of  research  and  it  has 
never  led  to  error.  It  is  universally  accepted 
as  one  of  the  foundation  stones  of  physical 
science.  Only  a  true  principle  will  always 
lead  us  right. 

The  manifestations  of  energy  in  the  uni- 
verse furnish  a.  basis  of  classification  of  its 
innumerable  constituents  of  the  most  funda- 
mental character.     The  greatest  inequalities 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    47 

prevail.  Some  bodies  are  so  rich  in  this 
splendid  endowment  that  they  are  raised  to 
a  lofty  height  in  creation.  For  ages  they 
pour  forth  this  treasure  in  lavish  abundance, 
and  these  constitute  a  kingly  class.  Such 
marvellous  centres  of  radiation  are  the  count- 
less suns  in  celestial  space.  They  are  num- 
bered by  at  least  a  hundred  million,  while  the 
dark  bodies,  poor  in  energy,  which  receive 
supplies  from  them,  are  many  times  more 
numerous.  Up  to  a  very  recent  time  the  as- 
tronomer alone  could  present  to  us  these  tre- 
mendous localizations  of  energy — the  foci 
whence  light  and  heat  pass  incessantly  to  less 
favoured  bodies  to  be  transformed  there  into 
the  manifold  varieties  of  energy,  making  up  a 
complete  planet. 

Thus  we  have  been  told  from  our  childhood 
that  the  multiplied  activities  of  our  own  earth, 
in  sky  and  sea  and  land,  are  only  changes 
rung  upon  the  energy  unceasingly  poured 
upon  us  from  the  sun,  whose  children  all  our 
forms  of  life  and  motion  are.  It  is  a  beauti- 
ful truth,  worthy  of  all  the  elaboration  it  has 
received     from    scientists    and    poets.     But 


48  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

recent  discoveries  have  revealed  to  us  de- 
positories of  energy  of  such  transcendent 
magnitude,  all  around  us  and  in  us,  that  we 
no  longer  need  to  ascend  into  heaven  or  take 
the  wings  of  the  morning  to  find  them.  The 
study  of  radium  and  its  associates  in  activity 
reveals  to  us  an  amount  of  energy  bound  up 
in  the  molecules  of  matter  all  about  us  that 
makes  the  radiant  wealth  of  a  star  seem  an 
ordinary  thing.  It  has  been  computed  by 
Professor  J,  J„  Thomson  in  his  Yale  lectures 
.  that  a  gramme  of  radium  which  emits  per 
hour  enough  heat  to  raise  one  hundred 
grammes  of  water  one  degree,  would  take 
fifty  thousand  years  to  exhaust  its  energy. 
This  means  energy  enough  to  raise  a  battle- 
ship of  eighteen  thousand  tons  more  than 
three-fourths  of  a  mile.  If  such  be  the 
amount  of  energy  in  a  minute  amount  of 
this  metal  it  is  oppressive  to  our  imagination 
to  consider  what  tremendous  stores  of  it  are 
locked  up  in  the  invisible  atoms  which  make 
up  the  world  in  which  we  live.  In  all  these 
molecular  accumulations,  no  fact  has  yet  ap- 
peared to  indicate  that  radio-activity  is  more 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    49 

than  transfer  and  transformation  of  energy, 
without  at  all  affecting  its  total  amount. 

But  the  nineteenth  century  had  yet  an- 
other great  contribution  to  make  to  human 
knowledge.  Matter  and  motion  do  not 
make  up  the  whole  of  the  world  we  know. 
Our  earth  at  least  is  enriched  with  the  pres- 
ence of  life.  We  can  no  more  define  life 
than  we  can  define  matter,  or  motion,  or 
time,  or  space.  Yet  we  know  them  well 
enough  never  to  confound  them  or  take  one 
for  another.  The  attempted  definitions  of 
life  are  curious  mental  exercises,  making 
obscure  what  at  least  we  felt  was  clear 
enough  before.  The  beginning  of  life  in 
the  world  is  a  problem  which  to  mere 
naturalists  is  invested  with  unspeakable 
difficulty.  To  attribute  it  to  germ-laden 
meteors  from  a  distant  sphere  would  sound 
more  like  a  jest  than  a  sober  hypothesis,  if 
we  could  forget  that  a  Scotchman  proposed  it. 

The  notion  that  in  some  way  unliving 
matter  may  rise  to  organized  living  forms 
is  as  old  as  history.  Students  recall  with 
merriment  Virgil's  method  in  the  Georgics 


50  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

of  producing  a  swarm  of  bees.  The  search 
for  the  origin  of  Hfe,  as  a  mere  scientific 
exercise,  is  a  fascinating  one.  Professor 
Bastian  fifty  years  ago  believed  that  he  had 
seen  Hfe  appear  where  there  had  been  none. 
It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  men  who  sub- 
jected his  experiment  to  a  merciless  criticism 
and  demonstrated  his  mistake,  were  two 
leaders,  known  as  sceptics,  who  might  have 
been  expected  to  welcome  the  asserted  fact, 
but  whose  love  of  truth  rejected  a  claim  in 
which  their  scientific  skill  detected  and  ex- 
posed a  fallacy.  The  chase  of  the  ignis 
fatuus  still  goes  on.  We  hear  of  attempts 
at  home  and  abroad.  Without  specifying 
them  here,  the  sober  judgment  of  those  best 
able  to  estimate  these  interesting  trials,  is  at 
most  the  Scotch  verdict  "  not  proven."  The 
unanimous  opinion  of  biologists  to-day  ap- 
pears to  be  that  which  was  enunciated  by 
the  great  masters  of  the  nineteenth  century 
from  Linnaeus  on  to  Darwin,  Huxley  and 
Gray,  that  life  is  not  produced  from  unliving 
matter.  The  great  doctrine  of  the  Continuity 
of  Life  takes  its  place  by  the  side  of  those 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    5 1 

other  fundamental  truths — the  Conservation 
of  Matter  and  the  Conservation  of  Energy. 

If  one  is  asked,  "What  are  the  great 
scientific  triumphs  of  the  nineteenth  century," 
he  would  be  apt  to  mention  the  steamboat  and 
locomotive,  the  common  telegraph,  telephone 
and  wireless  telegraph,  the  high-power  rifled 
cannon  and  the  ironclad,  the  sewing  machine 
and  typewriter,  the  dynamo  and  electric 
light.  These  are  great  things  and  make 
that  century  a  marked  one.  But  greater 
than  all  these  inventions,  and  lying  in  a 
higher  plane  are  the  three  great  scientific 
generalizations — the  Conservation  of  Matter, 
the  Conservation  of  Energy  and  the  Con- 
tinuity of  Life.  These  lift  that  century  to 
primacy  over  all  its  predecessors.  That 
century  was  the  first  that  enabled  us  to 
answer  the  inquiry  with  which  we  set  out. 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said,  the  idea 
entertained  by  some,  that  the  honest  study 
of  Nature  leads  away  from  a  Creator,  would 
seem  to  be  unfounded.  If  an  honest  scientist 
were  asked  to  account  for  the  beginning  of 
matter  or  energy  or  life,  he  would  have  to 


52  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

admit  that  science  can  give  no  account  of  it. 
The  forces  she  studies — the  only  ones  he 
finds  in  the  operations  of  the  world — have 
no  power  to  create  an  atom  or  a  monad. 
Hence  to  ask  science  to  tell  how  they  came 
into  being,  is  like  asking  a  blind  man  about 
light,  or  a  deaf  man  about  music.  For  the 
scientist  to  say  that  because  science  tells 
nothing  about  absolute  beginnings  or  end- 
ings, there  are  none  such,  is  as  if  the  man 
without  eyesight  should  declare  there  is  no 
light.  Sound  science  does  not  affirm  the 
eternity  of  matter,  energy  or  life ;  she  merely 
says  when  asked  about  the  origin  of  either, 
that  she  does  not  know,  that  she  has  no 
means  of  telling  it :  that  the  inquirer  must 
resort  to  some  other  source  of  knowledge 
than  science  for  an  answer  to  his  question.  I 
step  into  a  lecture  room  and  see  on  the 
blackboard  a  circle.  It  has  no  sign  of  a 
beginning  or  end.  If  I  am  asked  to  find  its 
origin,  geometry  cannot  help  me  to  an 
answer.  Must  I  say  that  it  is  eternal  ?  Not 
so,  for  a  bystander  of  established  character, 
tells  me  that  he  was  present  when  it  was 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    53 

drawn  and  can  designate  the  point  from 
which  it  started.  So  when  science  cannot 
tell  us  the  origin  of  the  world  the  testimony 
of  one  who  was  at  its  beginning  may  satisfy 
our  questioning. 

Is  the  world  as  we  know  it  the  world  which 
the  Bible  declares  that  Christ  made?  The 
world  of  the  Bible  was  declared  to  be  one 
whose  matter,  energy  and  life  were  all  of 
supernatural  origin,  and  therefore  one  in 
which  mere  natural  forces  could  work  no  new 
addition  to  either.  After  thousands  of  years 
of  slow  patient  inquiry,  modern  science  de- 
clares that  the  actual  world  is  one  character- 
ized by  these  very  features  ;  that  the  forces  at 
play  in  it  can  make  no  atom,  can  create  no 
energy,  can  start  no  life.  In  the  most  funda- 
mental and  universal  of  all  principles,  Christ's 
world  and  this  world  are  thus  identified. 

The  irresistible  inference  is  that  the  Bible  is 
right :  Christ  did  made  the  universe.  He  is 
here,  not  by  courtesy,  nor  in  a  foreign  or 
hostile  field,  but  in  His  own  house.  This 
splendid  array  which  comes  from  His  hand 
cannot  be  unfriendly  to  His  highest  work. 


54  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

All  things  were  made  by  Him.  They  were 
also  made  for  Him.  The  Christian  may  walk 
in  every  direction  through  this  wonderful 
creation  and  humbly  feel  that  he  has  a  right 
to  be  here.  He  is  at  home,  in  his  father's 
house.  Its  light  and  beauty  are  for  him. 
They  were  made  by  his  Lord,  whom  he  may 
see  in  every  flower  and  hear  in  every  bird- 
song.  Christ  fills  the  universe.  His  wisdom 
is  enclosed  in  the  atom  and  expanded  in  the 
starry  world.  Nature  is  full  of  interest  when 
studied  for  itself  alone,  but  infinitely  richer 
when  the  glorious,  gracious  Maker  is  discerned 
in  the  works  of  His  hands. 


LfiCTURE  11 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  IN  ITS  RE- 
LATION  TO    PHYSICAL  SCIENCE 


LECTURE  II 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  IN  ITS  RE- 
LATION   TO    PHYSICAL  SCIENCE 

IN  its  literary  aspects,  no  writing  having 
the  same  general  subject — the  revela- 
tion of  the  Son  of  God — could  well  be  in 
greater  contrast  to  the  Old  Testament  than 
the  New.  The  Old  Testament  in  its  poetry 
and  its  prose,  in  its  biography,  history, 
prophecy  and  song,  presenting  every  form  of 
literature  and  a  perfect  model  in  each, — has 
yet  a  deliciously  antique  flavour,  and  brings 
to  our  imagination  a  lively  picture  of  the 
times  in  which  it  was  written  and  the  people 
whose  grander  features  of  character  are  in- 
delibly stamped  upon  it. 

The  New  Testament  diction  is  more  like 
that  of  our  own  age.  It  is  simple,  too,  but  its 
simplicity  comes  with  larger  sentences.  The 
ample  elastic  Greek,  with  its  musical  lubric- 
ity, doubtless  the  most  perfect  tongue  ever 
spoken  by  man — was  the  vehicle  of  the  one ; 
57 


58  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

while  the  stately  Hebrew,  majestic,  intense, 
less  copious, — was  the  voice  of  the  other — 
the  one  magnificent  in  expression,  the  other 
marvellous  in  suggestion.  So  sharply  con- 
trasted are  these  great  tongues,  that  our 
English  versions  retain  their  characteristics, 
and  we,  who  are  shut  up  to  the  latter  in  our 
reading,  are  not  altogether  unable  to  appre- 
ciate those  qualities  which  the  scholar  doubt- 
less sees  better.  Even  to  us,  passing  from 
the  Old  Testament  to  the  New  is  somewhat 
like  going  from  Stonehenge  to  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral. 

These  two  divisions  of  the  Bible  are  strik- 
ingly different  in  their  relation  to  the  great 
theme,  which  both  of  them  have  in  common. 
There  is  no  part  of  religion  that  is  neglected 
in  either,  but  is  it  not  true  that  in  the  older 
books  the  external  side  is  emphasized,  and  in 
the  later  ones  the  internal  side  ?  In  the  one 
the  foundation  and  growth  of  the  Church,  her 
lapses  and  their  punishment,  with  her  glorious 
future,  are  painted  in  vivid  colours?  In  the 
other,  the  inner  life  of  the  believer,  his  growth 
in  spiritual  power,  his  trials  and  victories,  his 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    59 

falls  and  recoveries  and  his  glorious  personal 
destiny  largely  occupy  the  canvas.  In  the 
one  it  is  the  God  of  the  chosen  people  whom 
we  worship.  In  the  other,  it  is  the  God  of 
each  true  Israelite  whom  we  love.  This 
statement  appears  to  be  supported  by  the 
marked  difference  in  the  two  Testaments  as 
to  the  prominence  given  to  the  Third  Per- 
son of  the  adorable  Trinity,  The  Holy 
Spirit,  the  breath  of  the  Almighty,  is  men- 
tioned seventy  times  in  the  Old  Testament, 
while  in  the  New  Testament  covering  less 
than  one-third  the  space.  He,  the  minister  of 
grace  and  power  to  the  Christian  believer,  is 
spoken  of  two  hundred  and  thirty-two  times. 
That  is,  He  is  named  eleven  times  as  often  in 
the  one  as  in  an  equal  number  of  pages  of 
the  other.  This  fact  makes  a  decided  change 
in  the  standpoint  from  which  man's  relation 
to  his  Maker  is  viewed.  In  both  Testaments, 
the  spiritual  and  temporal  are  mingled.  In 
the  older  one  the  spiritual  looks  at  us  through 
the  temporal ;  in  the  later,  the  spiritual  usurps 
the  field  of  view  and  the  temporal  is  often 
only  seen  at  a  second  glance. 


6o  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

If,  therefore,  we  are  seeking  for  any  light 
upon  Christ's  physical  world  in  the  pages  of 
the  New  Testament,  we  are  largely  shut  up 
to  the  possible  relations  of  the  world  of  mat- 
ter to  moral  qualities.  Let  it  not  be  thought 
chimerical  to  suppose  that  the  material  uni- 
verse may  have  important  bearings  on  ethical 
or  religious  growth.  The  pursuit  of  truth  in 
Nature  may  be  friendly  or  unfriendly  to  virtue^ 

But  if  Christ  be  the  author  of  both  worlds, 
they  will  surely  not  be  discordant.  We 
should  expect  the  one  to  be  in  some  realiza- 
ble sense  adapted  to  the  other.  To  suppose 
that  He  would  make  the  two  worlds  hostile 
one  to  the  other,  so  that  excellence  in  the 
one  would  be  irreconcilable  with  proficiency 
in  the  other ;  or  even  that  He  would  make 
them  so  independent  of  each  other,  that  the 
phenomena  of  the  one  would  have  no  sort  of 
relation  to  those  of  the  other,  is  a  hypothesis 
so  unreasonable  as  to  be  inadmissible. 

We  propose  to  inquire  whether  the  qualities 
inculcated,  especially  in  the  New  Testament, 
as  characterizing  the  true  disciples  of  Christ 
are  such  as  best  prepare  one  for,  and  are  fos- 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    6l 

tered  by,  study  of  the  other  world,  the  ma- 
terial world,  which  He  is  declared  to  have 
made.  Is  the  perfect  man  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  perfect  man  of  science  ?  If  this  is 
true,  shall  we  not  have  a  strong  proof  that 
the  Bible  is  right  in  telling  us  that  both  came 
from  one  hand?  On  the  contrary,  should 
the  traits  of  character  fostered  by  scientific 
pursuits  be  unchristian,  we  must  believe  that 
the  world  material  and  the  world  spiritual 
have  different  authors. 

What  then  are  fundamental  traits  of  Chris- 
tian character  as  drawn  by  the  Master  Him- 
self? Let  us  pick  out  only  the  brighter 
jewels  from  the  full  circle  of  gems.  I  would 
surely  name  first  Humility^  the  basis  of  virtue, 
the  indispensable  condition  of  genuine  ex- 
cellence, the  corner-stone  of  all  lofty  character. 
Like  other  precious  things,  it  is  often  coun- 
terfeited. Mock  humility  is  too  common. 
True  humility  is  rarer  than  it  should  be. 

It  is  easier  to  say  what  it  is  not,  than  what 
it  is.  It  is  not  servility.  This  cowardly  trait, 
unlike  humility,  is  often  accompanied  by  great 
sensitiveness  to  supposed  slights  and  by  an 


62  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

overweening  self-esteem.  Humility  does  not 
crawl  abjectly  before  power  or  rank.  It  does 
not  consort  with  cowardice  or  suspicion.  It 
no  more  crouches  before  the  insolent,  than  it 
tramples  on  the  weak.  The  opposite  of  ser- 
vility is  tyranny  :  the  opposite  of  humility  is 
pride. 

It  is  commonly  said  that  pride  grows  out 
of  an  extravagant  conceit  of  our  merit  or  our 
possessions:  while  humility  is  based  on  a 
modest  and  proper  self-estimate.  Thus  Mr. 
Spurgeon  says  that  "  humility  is  to  make  a 
right  estimate  of  one's  self.  It  is  no  humility 
for  a  man  to  think  less  of  himself  than  he 
ought,  though  it  might  rather  puzzle  him  to 
do  that."  After  all,  are  not  our  estimates  of 
ourselves  or  others  always  relative?  We 
must  have  what  scientists  call  a  unit  of  meas- 
ure. The  proud  man  takes  his  unit  too 
small.  He  looks  beneath  him  for  his  measur- 
ing rod.  The  humble  man  looks  up  for  his. 
We  are  exhorted  in  Scripture  not  to  think  of 
ourselves  more  highly  than  we  ought  to 
think.  But  it  is  not  enjoined  upon  us  to 
think  ourselves  base,  for  the  apostle  immedi- 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    63 

ately  urges  his  brethren  to  "  think  of  them- 
selves soberly,  according  as  God  hath  dealt 
to  every  man  the  measure  of  faith." 

But  may  it  not  be  true  after  all,  that  the 
highest  type  of  humility  consists  in  not  think- 
ing of  oneself  at  all  ?  Have  we  not  for  this 
the  highest  authority  ? 

"  At  the  same  time  came  the  disciples  unto 
Jesus,  saying,  who  is  the  greatest  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ?  And  Jesus  called  a  lit- 
tle child  unto  Him  and  set  him  in  the  midst 
of  them  and  said,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  ex- 
cept ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little 
children  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  The  Master  does  not  leave  us 
in  doubt  as  to  what  trait  in  the  child  He 
meant  to  commend. 

Poets  and  painters  love  to  depict  the  beauty 
of  the  little  ones,  their  artlessness,  and  inno- 
cence and  their  appealing  helplessness. 
These  are  all  lovely  features  of  the  infantile 
character.  Through  all  the  ages  they  have 
made  the  child  the  jewel  of  the  household, 
the  ruler  before  whom  his  elders  bow  as  they 
recognize  in  him  the  spring  of  the  gentler 


64  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

feelings  which  the  hard  world  outside  ignores 
or  represses.  But  it  was  not  those  beautiful 
appealing  qualities  which  the  Master  wished 
to  emphasize  here,  much  as  He  loved  them. 
He  leaves  us  in  no  doubt,  for  He  immediately 
adds,  "  Whosoever  therefore  shall  humble 
himself  as  this  little  child,  the  same  is  the 
greatest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  Start- 
ling paradox  this  as  to  the  foundation  of 
moral  greatness.  Whoever,  before  our  Lord, 
thought  of  humility  as  characterizing  a  child  ? 
If  humility  means  proper  self-estimate  this 
involves  reflection  and  comparison,  and  these 
the  child  cannot  exercise.  They  are  the 
mental  operations  of  mature  life.  But  if  hu- 
mility in  this  highest  form  means  absence  of 
thought  about  oneself,  the  child  has  it  per- 
fectly. He  does  not  take  offense  at  what 
would  be  grievous  slights  to  older  people. 
The  quip,  the  sneer,  the  cut  are  weapons  pow- 
erless with  a  child.  He  does  not  understand 
them,  because  he  is  not  thinking  of  himself. 
Humility  in  him  is  associated  with  weakness, 
but  the  association  is  accidental  and  unneces- 
sary.    Humility  is  not  weakness.     Strength 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    65 

may  stoop.  Weakness  must  stoop.  True 
humility  may  belong  to  the  most  mature  and 
exalted  character.  An  archangel  may  have 
it  as  fully  as  an  infant.  How  perfectly  was 
it  exemplified  by  our  Lord  who  emptied 
Himself  to  save  His  people,  and  though  He 
was  the  son  of  God,  rarely  spoke  of  Himself 
as  such,  preferring,  when  He  mentioned  that 
august  relation,  to  say  that  God  was  His 
father,  and  thus  in  that  glorious  duality,  to 
direct  attention  to  the  other  personage  and 
not  to  Himself.  Are  we  not  right  then  in 
naming  humility  as  the  first  and  chiefest  in 
the  round  of  Christian  virtues?  A  good 
Christian  must  that  architect  of  the  old  Eng- 
lish college  have  been,  who,  in  arranging  the 
quadrangles  made  the  gate  of  honour  only  to 
be  reached  through  the  gate  of  virtue,  while 
both  were  inaccessible  except  through  the 
gate  of  humility. 

Next  to  humility,  we  would  place  as  a  fun- 
damental feature  of  a  perfect  man  in  Christ's 
Spiritual  Kingdom,  a  very  closely  allied  qual- 
ity. Simplicity,  or,  as  the  apostle  calls  it, 
"  singleness  of  heart"     It  characterizes  the 


66  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

loftiest  natures  and  is  so  obviously  necessary 
to  a  complete  character,  that  it  seems  not  to 
need  or  receive  large  comment  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. Its  opposite,  duplicity  or  hypocrisy, 
however,  is  scourged  repeatedly  throughout 
the  Bible.  No  form  of  imperfection  is  so  ter- 
ribly denounced  by  our  Lord.  *'  Woe  unto 
you,  hypocrites,"  came  often  from  those 
gende  lips.  His  apostle  declared  that  "  the 
double-minded  man  is  unstable  in  all  his 
ways,"  and  lifts  up  his  voice  in  exhortation  : 
"  Purify  your  heart,  ye  double  minded." 
Christ's  forerunners  had  said  that  "  the  hope 
of  the  hypocrite  shall  perish  "  and  that  "  his 
joy  is  but  for  a  moment." 

Near  to  simplicity  in  the  garland  of  Chris- 
tian excellencies,  is  love  of  truth.  "  Truth 
and  sincerity,"  quaintly  said  Bishop  Tillot- 
son,  "  have  all  the  advantages  of  appearance 
and  many  more."  In  short  he  means  that 
they  are  indispensable  to  reputation  as  well 
as  character.  Christ  made  no  account  of 
reputation,  but  exalted  character,  and  put 
truth  as  a  primary  and  necessary  part  of  it. 
Truth  was  not  apparently  valued  by  the  peo- 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    67 

pie  of  His  time  and  race.  The  Saviour  rises 
above  the  level  of  His  generation  in  this  as  in 
other  things,  as  the  Matterhorn  above  the 
Zermatt  hills.  He  exalts  this  trait  by  declar- 
ing Himself  to  be  embodied  truth.  From 
that  time  on,  to  His  followers,  love  of  Him  has 
been  love  of  truth.  Only  scholars  can  love  an 
abstraction,  but  all  whether  learned  or  un- 
learned, can  love  a  quality  realized  in  a  living 
person.  Pilate  asked  "  what  is  truth  ?  "  and 
did  not  know  that  he  had  the  answer  before 
him,  for  he  had  never  heard  the  memorable 
words  "  I  am  the  truth."  Millions  since  that 
time  have  found  in  Christ,  a  reply  to  the 
question  which  the  Roman  procurator  evi- 
dently thought  to  be  unanswerable,  for  he 
immediately  retired  after  asking  it. 

We  close,  but  do  not  exhaust  our  enumera- 
tion of  the  salient  virtues  of  the  Christian 
character,  as  drawn  in  the  Bible,  by  mem- 
tioning  the  quality  of  Faith.  Our  doctors 
tell  us  that  this,  in  spiritual  things,  is  an 
active  state  of  the  mind,  distinguished  from 
mere  belief,  in  that  its  object  is  a  divine  per- 
son and  not  a  proposition.     Doubtless  it  is 


68  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  acceptance  of  a  divine  person  and  his 
claims  on  us,  involving  intellect,  conscience 
and  will.  We  beg  here  to  be  allowed  to 
refer  to  the  intellectual  part  only  of  this 
complex  act.  In  regard  to  this,  we  cannot 
do  better  than  take  the  bold  graphic  descrip- 
tion of  it  by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  who  calls  it  "  The  evidence  of 
things  not  seen,"  while  the  whole  of  it, 
intellectual  and  ethical,  is  the  "  substance  of 
things  hoped  for."  In  this  aspect  then  faith 
is  the  power  to  see  the  invisible.  The 
paradox  is  only  apparent.  We  see  the 
things  called  visible  with  the  eye  of  the 
body,  but  there  is  allegorically  a  mental  eye 
that  may  give  us  pictures  of  the  invisible 
more  vivid,  more  definite  than  anything 
we  see  by  the  light  of  the  sun.  "  The  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things 
that  are  not  seen  are  eternal,"  and  the  latter 
make  up  the  higher  world.  In  it,  without 
faith,  we  grope  like  blind  men ;  with  it,  we 
walk  in  light  and  see  Him  who  is  the 
light.  Faith  is  not  contrary  to  reason.  The 
things  it  reveals  are  beautifully  consistent 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    69 

and  harmonious.  They  are  reasonable  in  a 
high  sense,  but  unaided  reason  would  never 
have  seen  them.  They  are  not  unnatural, 
but  supernatural,  or  perhaps  better  super- 
physical. 

We  have  thus  briefly  picked  out  from  the 
whole  garland  of  graces  forming  the  type  of 
a  perfect  man,  as  revealed  to  us  in  the  word 
of  God,  four  that  we  regard  as  funda- 
mental. Faith,  Truth,  Simplicity  and  Humil- 
ity are  the  stones  at  the  comers  of  the  grand 
edifice  of  Christian  character.  If  one  asks, 
where  is  love?  we  say,  love  is  the  bright 
aura  that  fills  the  building  and  warms  and 
glows  in  every  part  of  it.  We  do  not  divorce 
the  occupant  from  his  home.  Love  believes, 
is  true  and  simple  and  humble. 

It  is  now  our  duty  to  ask,  before  passing 
to  the  other  realm  of  the  creation,  whether 
these  four  primary  qualities  receive  in  other 
religions  the  prominence  they  have  in  Christ's 
scheme.  There  is  a  striking  tendency  in 
some  foreign  circles,  copied  as  usual  in 
certain  localities  in  our  own  land,  to  press 
the  claims  of  the  g^eat  Oriental  religions  to 


70  THE   NEW  TESTAMENT 

equality  with  and  at  times  to  superiority  over, 
those  of  the  Bible.  A  free  field  should  be 
given  to  all  honest  admirers  and  faithful 
students  of  those  venerable  cults.  The  theme 
is  too  important  to  every  human  being  to 
allow  prepossession  to  bar  the  way  to  the 
truth.  While  we  may  not  care  to  join  a 
"  parliament  of  religions,"  we  want  sincerely 
to  know  the  best  that  Brahma  or  Buddha  or 
Confucius  or  Mahomet  has  to  tell  us.  Have 
humility,  simplicity,  truth  and  faith  the  vast 
and  overpowering  prominence  in  the  teach- 
ings of  any  of  these  great  leaders,  which  they 
have  in  Christ's  words  ?  Am  I  doing  them 
any  injustice  when  I  say  they  seem  to  have 
little  place  and  several  of  them  no  place  for 
humility?  Is  it  not  with  them  a  slavish 
quality,  contemned  and  rejected?  They  ap- 
peal to  fear  often.  The  images  set  up  for 
worship  in  their  temples  are  rarely  other  than 
awful.  Is  it  not  true  that  the  lowliness  which 
may  dwell  in  a  brave  and  noble  soul  was  a 
revelation  for  which  they  were  unprepared  ? 
These  religions  may  have  much  which  we 
admire,    especially    in     their     leaders     and 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    7 1 

founders  as  distinguished  from  the  great 
masses  of  their  followers.  Brahma  was 
serene,  Buddha  severe,  Confucius  prudent, 
Mahomet  temperate  and  brave.  But  none 
of  them  enthroned  Love.  Simplicity  and 
Truth  were  admitted  by  some  of  them  when 
useful.  They  exalt  power,  and  praise  "the 
superior  man."  Christ  loved  the  poor  and 
emphasized  those  unearthly  traits  which  lift 
the  poor  man  to  fitness  for  the  loftiest  society. 
We  believe  that  humility,  simplicity,  truth 
and  faith,  in  the  emphasis  given  to  them  by 
Christ,  characterize  the  Christian  ideal  as 
unique  among  the  religions  of  the  world. 

Are  these  indispensable  qualities  in  Christ's 
Spiritual  Kingdom  recognized,  or  are  they 
ignored  in  the  constitution  of  the  Physical 
World  ?  Are  these  moral  traits  fostered  by 
the  study  of  material  science,  or  are  their  op- 
posites  cultivated  by  such  pursuits?  Do 
these  Christian  virtues  prepare  a  man  for  suc- 
cessful scientific  work,  or  do  they  hinder  him  ? 

As   I   have  said  in  another  place  ^  let  us 

*  "  Thoughts  on  the  discord  and  harmony  of  Science  and  the 
Bible,"  Treasury  of  Christian  Thought. 


72  THE   NEW   TESTAMENT 

listen  then  first  to  the  voice  of  Physical 
Science  as  she  speaks  in  the  lives  of  her 
greatest  votaries  and  in  her  own  teachings, 
and  learn  what  are  the  qualities  of  heart 
which  she  requires  of  her  children  for  en- 
trance into  her  courts.  Who  is  the  perfect 
man,  as  viewed  from  her  position  ? 

I.  The  answer  undoubtedly  is  that  his 
first  and  greatest  virtue  is  humility. 

The  scene  that  is  presented  to  us  in  the 
material  world  is  one  which  from  time  im- 
memorial, by  its  vastness,  has  excited  and 
oppressed  the  imagination.  Even  the  child- 
ish views  of  the  visible  universe,  to  which  the 
ancients  were  shut  up,  overwhelmed  the  con- 
templative with  awe.  "  To  count  the  stars, 
or  measure  the  earth,"  was  their  synonym  for 
an  impossible  task.  The  contrast  between 
the  greatness  of  the  universe,  even  as  imper- 
fectiy  known  to  them,  and  the  littleness  of  man 
furnished  an  obvious  theme  for  the  moralist 
and  the  poet.  If  such  were  the  fact  in  the  in- 
fancy of  knowledge,  how  indescribably 
exalted  is  this  contrast,  by  the  knowledge  of 
the  universe  which  we  possess. 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    73 

David's  starry  dome,  to  him  perhaps  only 
a  Httle  way  above  the  clouds,  has  been  pushed 
farther  and  farther  away,  expanding  more 
rapidly  than  the  flying  centuries,  until  in 
sober  truth  "  its  centre  is  everywhere  and  its 
circumference  nowhere."  The  sun,  which 
for  him  was  doubtless  no  bigger  than  the 
moon,  and  but  little  further  from  us,  has  in 
men's  conceptions  retreated  four  hundred 
times  farther  back,  and  swollen  in  importance 
until  it  is  eight  hundred  times  as  massive  as 
all  the  planets  together.  Yet  this  superb  orb, 
the  Lord  and  giver  of  life  and  motion,  from 
which  planets  and  moons  derive  their  mass, 
their  light  and  their  energy;  this  glorious 
shining  sphere,  which  has  been  lavishing  its 
treasure  of  heat  it  may  be  for  many  millions 
of  years  and  has  a  store  for  as  many  more,  is 
but  an  inferior  unit  among  the  hundred  mil- 
lion suns  which  are  doubtless  within  the 
reach  of  our  greatest  telescopes.  This  ex- 
pansion in  our  views  of  the  universe  has 
left  our  earth  immeasurably  more  insignifi- 
cant than  the  speck  it  was  once  the  fashion 
to  call   it.     It  is  nothing.     To   mention  it, 


74  THE   NEW  TESTAMENT 

is  grossly  to  exaggerate  its  relative  impor- 
tance. 

The  dimensions  of  time  are  no  less  vast 
than  those  of  space.  Geologists  demand 
nothing  less  than  hundreds  of  millions  of 
years.  While  the  physicist  may  not  be  pre- 
pared to  admit  these  vast  demands,  he  is 
willing  to  grant  a  duration  which  we  may 
name,  but  can  by  no  means  grasp  in  thought 
These  reflections,  the  commonplaces  of  the 
schoolboy,  so  trite  that  they  have  lost  their 
power  to  stir  us,  have  been  used  from  im- 
memorial time  to  chastise  the  pride  of  man. 
"  When  I  consider  Thy  heavens,"  sang  David, 
"  what  is  man  I "  How  absurd  in  a  creature, 
occupying  a  point  in  space  and  a  moment  in 
time,  to  strut  forth  in  the  presence  of  the  silent 
infinities.  The  vastness  of  the  universe 
rightly  enjoins  humility. 

But  while  such  is  a  legitimate  use  of  this 
reflection,  it  is  perhaps  better  suited  to  the 
early  period  of  our  lives  and  of  the  life  of  our 
race.  Maturer  minds  are  less  impressed  by 
these  disclosures  of  the  immensity  of  creation. 
For  after  all   the  numerical  greatness  of  a 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    75 

measured  quantity  depends  on  the  size  of  the 
arbitrary  unit  one  adopts.  The  fixed  star, 
whose  distance,  when  expressed  in  miles, 
stretches  in  unmeaning  length  across  the 
page,  appears  to  be  brought  quite  near,  when 
we  take  as  a  measuring  rod  the  Hne  which  a 
ray  of  light  describes  in  a  year. 

It  will  occur  to  the  thoughtful  that  vast 
distances  and  duration  should  not  oppress  us. 
Numerical  grandeur  ought  not  to  stun  a 
rational  being.  It  is  not  mere  material  ex- 
tent which  is  best  calculated  to  foster  humility 
in  a  reverent  and  thoughtful  soul.  Fortu- 
nately it  is  not  the  things  themselves  with 
which  we  are  most  concerned,  but  the  ratios 
of  things.  The  things  may  be  inscrutable, 
impossible  or  imaginary,  and  the  ratios  may 
be  real  and  simple  and  quite  comprehensible. 

But  is  the  physical  universe  exhausted 
when  we  have  gauged  its  depth,  counted 
and  weighed  its  orbs,  and  measured  its  dura- 
tions? By  no  means.  Behind  these  facts  of 
mass,  and  distance,  and  time  lies  the  greater 
and  better  part  of  the  universe.  From  the 
contemplation  of  these  phenomena  emerge 


76  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  nobler  ideas  of  universal  law,  of  cosmic 
order,  of  majestic  force.  In  these  we  dis- 
cover the  great  soul  of  science  in  whose  sol- 
emn presence  the  greatest  mind  may  bow  as  a 
child.  Before  the  ineffable  and  awful  beauty 
of  truth,  the  shekinah  of  this  sanctuary,  the 
mature  philosopher  bends  with  a  reverence 
which  he  cannot  pay  to  the  stones  and  beams 
of  the  temple.  He  may  stand  erect  in  the 
presence  of  the  unfathomed  abysses  of  space 
with  their  countless  contents  of  varied  splen- 
dour, but  he  must  feel  that  he  is  a  very  little 
thing,  when  there  arises  in  his  soul  the  con- 
ception of  the  grand  law  by  which  this  in- 
numerable host  is  made  a  system. 

The  occasion  and  need  for  humility  are 
greatly  enhanced  when  from  the  general  con- 
ception we  descend  to  particulars.  The  con- 
templation of  nature  fills  us  with  astonish- 
ment when  we  contrast  the  simplicity  of  her 
causes  with  the  complexity  of  their  results. 
Newton  declares  that  "nature  loves  sim- 
plicity and  affects  not  the  pomp  of  superflu- 
ous causes." 

The  law  of  gravitation  may  be  stated,  and 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    77 

comprehended  by  a  child,  but  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  each  body  in  the  universe 
gravitates  to  every  other  body,  and  in  its 
movement  must  obey  that  influence,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  the  displacement  of  any  one 
mass  involves  a  complex  which  no  human 
mind  can  unravel.  What  is  true  of  gravity 
applies  equally  to  other  forces.  Their  opera- 
tion is  mingled  hopelessly  in  the  case  of  each 
body ;  so  much  so  that  the  complete  state- 
ment of  any  actual  physical  event  is  impossi- 
ble. The  younger  Herschel  is  reported  to 
have  declared  that  if  all  the  conditions  of  any 
physical  question  were  rigorously  written  out 
the  resulting  differential  equation  would  belt 
the  earth.  Were  absolutely  rigorous  con- 
formity to  facts,  however  minute,  demanded, 
there  could  be  no  science. 

Mathematics  can  give  us  a  rigorous  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  two  particles  only, 
subjected  to  the  law  of  gravitation.  Add  a 
third  and  the  solution  is  possible  only  under 
certain  conditions,  and  then  it  is  merely  ap- 
proximate. Yet  there  is  no  problem  in  nature 
so  simple  as  the  latter.     What  a  lesson  of 


78  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

humility  we  have  here  1  Place  the  intricacy 
of  nature  and  the  limited  power  of  the  human 
mind  in  juxtaposition  and  mark  the  disparity. 
Should  a  little  child  attempt  to  grasp  a 
mountain,  the  effort  would  be  less  presump- 
tuous. 

How  then  have  the  triumphs  of  science 
been  won?  The  answer  gives  still  more 
cause  for  humiliation.  It  happens  most  for- 
tunately that  in  the  multitude  of  influences  to 
which  each  body  is  subjected  the  greater 
part  are  insensibly  small,  and  are  for  us 
practically  non-existent.  Of  those  which  can- 
not be  disregarded,  one  is  usually  large,  and 
the  rest  may  be  considered  as  mere  dis- 
turbances of  it,  which  may  be  calculated 
separately,  and  added  together,  their  joint 
effect  being  nearly  equal  to  this  sum.  The 
solution,  it  is  true,  is  imperfect  and  only  ap- 
proximate, but  if  the  result  differ  from  the 
truth  by  something  less  than  one  can  meas- 
m-e,  it  is  accepted  as  exact,  because  it  is  in- 
distinguishable from  the  truth. 

There  are,  however,  very  few  physical 
problems  which  can  be  attacked  in  this  high 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    79 

mathematical  way.  In  the  great  majority  of 
cases  one  cannot  begin  at  the  beginning,  but 
must  seek  by  experiment  to  be  set  very  near 
to  the  conclusion  before  the  question  can  be 
put  into  a  mathematical  form  admitting  of 
solution.  Experiments  take  the  place  of  im- 
possible integrations.  In  many  problems  of 
the  highest  interest,  involving  the  ultimate 
constituents  of  bodies,  we  are  forced  to  adopt 
what  Maxwell  calls  the  statistical  method  and 
reason  by  averages  to  results  which  become 
more  faulty  as  the  groups  become  smaller. 

The  whole  region  of  science  in  its  most 
exact  form  is  thus  a  theatre  of  artifice  and  ex- 
pedient. These  are  a  confession  of  weakness. 
The  scientist  approaches  his  question  as  a 
hunter  does  his  game.  He  watches  and 
creeps  and  seeks  vantage  ground,  and  then 
mostly  fails.  Where  is  there  room  for  ar- 
rogance and  pride  ?  The  physicist  must 
stoop  to  conquer,  and  must  stoop  very  low. 
Surely  of  all  the  qualities  demanded  of  the 
votary  of  science,  the  first  and  chiefest  is 
humility. 

II.     Simplicity.     By  this  I  mean  that  sin- 


8o  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

gleness  of  mind  which  in  conduct  leads  to 
consistency  and  in  intellectual  matters  begets 
clearness  of  thought.  Perspicacity  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  scientist.  His  experiments 
axe  questions  addressed  to  nature.  If  the 
thought  be  confused,  the  question  will  be  in- 
volved, and  it  may  be  that  several  questions 
will  clumsily  be  asked  at  once.  Now,  nature 
answers  everything  that  is  asked  of  her,  but 
if  the  inquiry  be  mixed  and  disordered,  the 
answer  will  be  so  too,  and  although  true,  it 
will  be  unintelligible.  For  success  in  research 
the  student  must  have  a  point  to  make  and 
must  make  it.  Such  intellectual  simplicity  is 
the  natural  product  of  simplicity  of  character. 
Duplicity  in  morals  may  not  always  be  joined 
with  confused  thinking,  but  they  are  natural 
allies.  To  follow  two  masters  in  morals  leads 
often  to  a  similar  oscillation  between  truth 
and  error  in  speculation.  Such  wavering  is 
incompatible  with  progress  in  science.  Na- 
ture is  on  the  side  of  honesty,  and  sternly  re- 
presses the  false  and  the  fickle.  She  has  no 
pity  for  weakness,  and  towers  above  im- 
becility like  a  frowning   despot,  while   she 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    8 1 

yields  with  smiling  grace  to  the  strength 
which  is  begotten  of  simplicity. 

III.  Next  to  the  foregoing  fundamental 
requisites,  and  scarcely  inferior  to  them  in 
value,  is  love  of  truth.  Such  a  love  excludes 
prejudice  and  pride  of  opinion  and  party 
spirit.  Where  the  latter  exist,  they  operate 
on  the  intellect  as  shackles  upon  the  limbs. 
The  fields  of  scientific  research  are  intricate 
and  difficult  while  the  powers  of  the  explorer 
are  feeble  and  limited.  His  task  is  hopeless 
if  he  begin  his  work  handicapped  or  fettered. 
The  cultivation  of  science  often  requires  the 
sacrifice  of  ease,  of  taste,  of  fortune,  of  health, 
nay  of  life  itself,  and  often  of  what  to  many  is 
harder  to  bear  than  all  these,  the  giving  up 
the  cherished  opinions  of  a  lifetime.  As  a 
reward  for  all  these  losses  she  offers  only  the 
truth.  Nothing  but  a  passionate  love  of  the 
truth  can  ensure  the  noble  choice. 

The  annals  of  science  show  that  this  loyalty 
to  truth  has  characterized  the  great  discover- 
ers of  our  own  and  other  ages. 

I  recall  the  instance  of  Newton,  who,  when 
the  secret  of  the  world  was  within  his  grasp 


82  THE  NEW   TESTAMENT 

and  nothing  but  a  trifling  numerical  discrep- 
ancy intervened,  paused  for  twenty  years, 
patiently  waiting  for  new  light,  at  a  time 
when  other  keen  minds  were  on  the  same 
track,  and  he  might  any  day  have  seen  the 
crown  snatched  by  another. 

I  may  mention  Baily,  who,  when  by  a  long, 
difficult  and  delicate  research  he  had  accumu- 
lated records  of  one  thousand  three  hundred 
pendulum  observations,  and  a  discussion  of 
them  revealed  to  him  some  unknown  vitiat- 
ing bias  of  a  minute  amount,  did  not  hesitate 
to  burn  them  all,  though  the  act  cancelled  a 
year  and  a  half  of  precious  time.  A  less  lofty 
intolerance  of  error  would  have  sought  to 
claim  some  recognition  for  these  hard-earned 
results.  Think  of  Darwin  who  worked  and 
laboured  in  obscurity  for  thirty  years  to  make 
sure  of  his  ground,  when  a  less  conscientious 
man  would  have  rushed  into  print  with  a 
brilliant  but  immature  hypothesis. 

Contrast  with  these  examples  the  feverish 
haste  with  which  struggling  aspirants  for 
fame  hasten  before  the  public  with  embryonic 
facts,  which  largely  turn  out  to  be  abortions. 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    83 

The  freedom  of  the  press  is  a  great  boon,  but 
we  pay  daily  for  it  a  great  price. 

The  corrective  for  this  haste  is  a  love  of 
truth  superior  to  love  of  fame.  The  love  of 
truth  is  a  wholesome  restraint,  much  needed 
in  this  age  of  irrepressible  movement  and 
bold  speculation. 

But  it  is  not  only  a  curb,  but  a  spur.  It 
leads  to  industry  in  pursuit  and  patience 
under  disappointment.  These  qualities  are 
indispensable  to  success,  for  not  only  are  the 
problems  of  science  intricate,  but  she  con- 
ceals the  truth.  It  seems  to  be  her  glory  to 
hide  a  matter.  She  makes  no  provision  for 
carelessness  or  weakness  or  laziness.  On  the 
contrary  the  world  appears  to  be  so  consti- 
tuted as  to  lead  these  wrong. 

If  nature  were  to  take  human  form,  it 
would  often  be  that  of  a  beautiful  coquette, 
delighting  to  mock  her  suitor,  to  deceive  him 
and  laugh  at  him.  "  She  flies  to  the  willows, 
but  beckons  to  him  as  she  vanishes."  The 
protective  mimicry  of  which  naturalists  tell 
us  has  its  analogies  throughout  science,  mak- 
ing it  easy  to  err,  and  hard  to  grasp  the 


84  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

truth.  The  farther  and  higher  the  student 
goes,  the  more  is  he  impressed  with  this. 
Sir  J.  Herschel,  in  a  remarkable  passage  in 
one  of  his  essays,  refers  to  this  fact.  Speak- 
ing of  what  he  denominates  the  two  most 
difficult  and  deHcate  of  physical  problems — 
the  parallax  of  the  fixed  stars  and  the  mean 
density  of  the  earth — he  declares  that  in  their 
solution  "  every  element,  nay  even  the  ele- 
mentary powers  of  heat,  electricity,  the  mo- 
lecular movements  of  the  air,  the  varying 
elasticity  of  fibres  and  a  host  of  ill-understood 
disturbing  causes,  set  themselves  in  opposing 
array  in  their  most  recondite  and  unexpected 
forms  of  interference."  This  undoubted  fact 
in  the  existing  constitution  of  nature,  need 
not  trouble  him  who  believes  that  the  ma- 
terial universe  is  meant  to  be  a  school  for  the 
mind.  A  world  without  puzzles  and  dis- 
guises, where  indolence  and  carelessness 
would  be  as  safe  and  profitable  as  their  op- 
posites,  might  be  a  beautiful  world.  It  would 
be  worthless  as  a  school.  In  the  actual  world 
of  science  then,  love  of  truth  is  indispensable 
io  the  complete  man. 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    8$ 

Truth  in  nature  challenges  our  love  and 
our  wonder  by  its  richness  and  variety.  In 
the  light  of  advancing  knowledge,  the  utmost 
power  of  invention  and  fiction  appear  to  be 
poor  in  comparison  with  the  sober  facts  of 
the  world  around  us.  Our  childhood  was 
stirred  by  tales  of  giants  and  dragons. 
Goethe  exhausted  his  imagination  and  Retsch 
his  artistic  resources  to  depict  the  scaly  forms 
with  terrible  claws  and  many  a  snaky  fold 
at  which  we  used  to  shudder.  Yet  the  geo- 
logical museum  discloses  actual  forms  of  tre- 
mendous beasts,  —  Dinosaurs,  Brontosaurs 
and  the  like,  of  such  size  and  horrible  com- 
bination as  make  the  work  of  the  poet  and 
draughtsman  seem  poor  indeed.  The 
dragons  of  mythology  are  mild  survivals  in 
fiction  of  those  actual  monsters  of  the  later 
geological  eras.  The  facts  of  the  world  are 
everywhere  far  greater  than  our  possible 
fancies.  The  greatest  masters  of  painting  and 
sculpture  accordingly  seek  for  models  in  all 
their  work.  They  do  not  imagine  clouds, 
but  watch  the  sky.  Whether  it  be  the 
human  face,  or  even  the  folds  of  a  mande,  a 


86  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Raphael  will  not  paint  them  from  imagina- 
tion or  even  from  memory,  but  must  have  the 
living  subject,  or  the  actual  drapery  before 
him  as  he  works.  Truth  is  not  only  stranger 
than  fiction,  it  is  far  richer.  Nature  stretches 
on  all  sides  in  endless  vistas.  What  we  have 
seen  is  but  a  small  part  of  what  remains  to  be 
seen.  End  there  is  none,  we  cry.  The  same 
cry  will  be  heard  ages  hence,  when  in  the  ad- 
vance of  knowledge  our  widest  learning  now 
will  seem  to  our  remote  successors  the  merest 
and  crudest  beginnings  of  a  vaster  science. 
Truth  should  be  loved  because,  like  God,  it  is 
infinite. 

IV.  Next  to  these  three,  and  finally,  the 
moral  quality  most  urgently  demanded  of 
the  scientist  is  Faith,  or  a  capacity  to  believe 
that  for  which  there  is  evidence  indeed,  but 
no  immediate  sensible  evidence,  and  to  act 
on  that  belief.  The  cold  intellectual  constitu- 
tion, that  demands  demonstration  before  as- 
sent, is  an  effectual  bar  to  scientific  progress. 
When  we  enter  the  field  where  action  must  be 
based  solely  upon  preponderance  of  probabil- 
ity and  demonstration  to  the  limited  extent 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    87 

that  it  exists  at  all  is  solely  destructive,  the 
moral  character  of  the  student  will  have  a 
great  deal  to  do  with  his  intellectual  move- 
ments. We  call  the  height  of  conviction 
here  "  moral  certainty,"  the  only  kind  of  cer- 
tainty we  can  have  as  regards  positive  state- 
ments, either  in  the  domain  of  conduct  or  in 
that  of  the  sciences  of  observation  or  experi- 
ment. 

Scientific  research  has  taught  us  that  the 
ultimate  materials  of  the  physical  universe 
are  hopelessly  beyond  the  reach  of  our 
senses,  however  these  may  be  aided  by  in- 
struments. What  is  seen  is  made  up  of 
what  is  unseen,  and  derives  all  its  properties 
from  it.  The  electrons,  forever  invisible,  may 
be  the  efficient  units  of  the  visible  world.  In 
the  insensibly  small  spaces  surrounding  and 
separating  these  material  points,  the  forces 
operate  which  determine  solidity  and  fluidity, 
which  generate  the  marvels  of  light  and  heat, 
and  constitute  the  secrets  of  electricity.  The 
triumphs  of  modern  science  have  been  largely 
won  in  this  unseen  world,  where  he  who  walks, 
walks  by  faith  and  not  by  sight.     No  one  can 


88  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

enter  here  who  is  not  prepared  to  accept  and 
realize  the  invisible.  His  ability  to  thread  his 
way  in  this,  the  real  though  hidden,  universe 
will  depend  not  only  upon  his  imagination  or 
power  to  "  visualize  "  the  atomic  figures  and 
swings  (for  this  may  mislead  by  its  too  clear 
definition),  but  upon  a  healthy  discrimination 
between  that  which  is  essential  and  that  which 
is  unimportant,  and  a  hearty  confidence  in  the 
former.  Surely  then  modern  physics,  whose 
highest  studies  are  thus  conducted  in  a 
region  beyond  cognizance  of  the  senses,  de- 
mands and  cultivates  in  its  votaries  the 
faculty  of  realizing  the  invisible. 

This  will  appear  yet  more  clear  if  we  look 
a  little  farther  into  recent  science.  Bodies 
and  their  atoms  form  but  a  part  and  that  not 
the  most  important  part  of  the  universe.  The 
latter  is  made  up  of  two  things  :  matter  and 
energy,  or  power  associated  with  matter. 
This  power  is  inexpressibly  fugitive.  Bodies 
and  atoms  are  incessantly  exchanging  it  with 
one  another.  These  transfers  constitute  the 
events  of  the  material  world.  All  that 
happens   to  bodies,  their  motions,  changes, 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    89 

effects  on  our  senses,  are  the  result  and  signs 
of  transfer  of  energy  to  and  fro.  A  world 
whose  energies  could  not  be  thus  transferred 
from  one  member  to  another,  would  be  ex- 
actly like  a  world  void  of  energy,  dark, 
silent,  motionless,  dead.  Energy  is  there- 
fore the  great  direct  subject  of  scientific 
study,  and  matter  is  only  indirectly  known 
through  energy. 

The  closeness  of  the  association  between 
matter  and  energy  is  suggestively  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  laws  of  energy  are 
identically  repeated  in  the  laws  of  matter. 
Thus  there  is  a  law  of  transmutation  for 
each,  a  law  of  conservation  for  each,  and 
a  law  of  dissipation  for  each.  It  would 
not  be  wrong  to  say  that  physical  science 
is  the  science  of  energy.  Yet  energy  is 
wholly  invisible.  If  in  the  realm  of  matter 
where  a  part  is  visible,  science  cannot  per- 
ceive without  faith,  much  less  can  she  do  so 
in  the  greater  realm  of  energy,  where  all  is 
invisible.  This  faith,  like  all  genuine  faith, 
is  in  harmony  with  reason.  Science  judges 
of  the  things  that  are  unseen  by  the  things 


90  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

that  do  appear.  When  she  emerges  from 
the  world  of  sense  into  the  world  beyond 
sense,  her  steps  become  more  confident,  and 
she  advances  with  an  elastic  freedom  that 
shows  that  she  is  in  her  native  element. 
The  laws  of  the  invisible  world  of  Physics 
are  better  known,  its  phenomena  are  simpler, 
and  its  conclusions  are  more  certain  than 
those  which  refer  to  the  visible  world.  For 
in  this  invisible  world  we  more  easily  ignore 
the  multitude  of  vanishing  but  confusing 
agencies  which  press  upon  us  everywhere  in 
the  world  of  sense,  but  which  are  more 
readily  ignored  and  therefore  do  not  trouble 
us  in  the  unseen  universe. 

The  physics  of  the  invisible  has  received 
a  mighty  contribution  in  the  past  decade. 
In  that  time,  a  new  department  has  been 
created  called  radio-activity.  As  we  have 
before  hinted  men  have  been  brought  to 
know  that  the  invisible  molecules  of  which 
bodies  are  composed,  possess  an  amount  of 
energy  heretofore  incredible.  It  appears 
that  some,  at  least,  of  them  are  descending 
to    lower    and    more    stable    forms,   giving 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    9I 

off  meanwhile  incessant  radiation — partly 
streams  of  matter  projected  with  amazing 
speed,  and  partly  ill-understood  emanations 
of  remarkable  character,  with  radiant  energy 
beside  it  may  be  in  the  shape  of  waves. 
The  whole  of  this  complex  activity,  together 
with  the  sum  total  of  the  matter  involved  in 
it,  is  of  a  scale  of  minuteness,  which  is  in- 
conceivably small  in  view  of  the  power 
manifested.  No  balance  or  chemical  re- 
agent has  seized  these  shadows. 

The  investigations  of  the  philosopher  here 
deal  with  what  seem  to  be  "  the  ghosts  of  de- 
parted" masses,  which  cannot  be  handled 
with  our  ordinary  implements  of  research. 
In  this  invisible  region,  near  the  very  begin- 
nings of  all  material  objects,  we  need  an  eye 
for  the  unseen — faith  hand  in  hand  with 
reason.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
scientific  world  to-day  has  its  attention 
largely  engrossed  by  the  study  of  radio- 
activity. Men  have  turned  from  the  pursuit 
of  the  vast  problems  of  the  heavens,  the  in- 
expressibly grand, — to  concentrate  attention 
on   the   opposite   pole   of   creation,   the   in- 


92  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

expressibly  small,  and  have  in  these  last 
years  gathered  what  has  perhaps  somewhat 
rashly  been  called  "  the  new  knowledge." 
This  novel  field  is  believed  to  hold  the  key 
to  the  material  world,  and  it  is  of  a  difficulty 
demanding  powers  given  to  but  few ;  but 
their  results  are  breathlessly  awaited  by  the 
onlooking  crowd  of  teachers  and  students. 
Great  revelations  are  doubtless  just  ahead  of 
us — great  changes,  if  not  reversals,  in  our 
atomic  theories,  but  the  essential  conditions 
for  making  these  discoveries  and  of  under- 
standing them  when  made  is  the  faculty  of 
seeing  the  invisible.  We  are  right  then  in 
emphasizing  as  a  fundamental  quality  re- 
quired in  a  scientific  man,  and  fostered  by 
his  pursuits,  that  of  faith  in  the  unseen. 

We  see  then  that  the  perfect  man  accord- 
ing to  the  New  Testament  is  humble,  simple, 
true,  and  believing.  The  perfect  man  accord- 
ing to  science  is  humble,  simple,  true,  and  be- 
lieving. The  voice  of  Nature  is  the  voice  of 
Christ.  Are  the  two  systems  independent  of 
one  another,  or  do  they  belong  to  one  system 
with   one  Head  ?    The  Bible  offers  the  only 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    93 

explanation  of  the  coincidence.  The  whole 
scheme  in  heaven  and  earth  is  one.  Nature 
and  grace  are  in  some  humble  but  real  sense 
complementary.  They  are  two  provinces  of 
one  kingdom.  Truth  is  Christ's,  whether  in 
the  realm  of  matter  or  of  spirit.  He  who 
does  good  work  in  any  realm,  really  does 
work  for  Christ.  It  is  thus  that  even  His 
enemies  must  work  for  Him,  so  far  as  their 
work  is  good.  The  old  stone  mason  at 
Cologne,  putting  blocks  into  the  rising  wall, 
might  have  been  an  unbeliever,  but  he  was 
helping  to  raise  the  great  Cathedral  if  he  did 
his  task  well. 

The  Christian  view  of  the  world  sheds  light 
upon  another  dark  point.  While  Science  de- 
mands of  her  votaries  the  great  cardinal  vir- 
tues of  Christianity,  and  while  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  profoundest  culture  of  nature 
fosters  these  virtues,  yet  we  do  not  discover 
in  her  system  any  energy  by  which  they  can 
be  created  where  they  are  not,  or  substituted 
for  their  contradictories,  pride,  unbelief,  love 
of  error  or  insincerity.  In  Christianity  this 
very  thing  is  done.     She  claims  and  shows  a 


94  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

power  which  nature  does  not  pretend  to  have. 
If  nature  be  an  independent  kingdom,  here 
is  a  confessed  imperfection.  If  she  be  a  part 
of  one  kingdom  with  Christianity,  the  imper- 
fection does  not  exist,  for  it  is  supplied  in  the 
constitution  of  the  realm  to  which  she  be- 
longs. 

In  closing  we  shall  reply  briefly  to  two  ob- 
vious objections  to  these  views : 

1.  "  The  qualities  enumerated  do  not  seem 
to  be  necessary  to  scientific  achievement,  for 
many  scientists  of  fame  are  arrogant,  sceptical 
and  lovers  of  their  hypotheses  more  than 
lovers  of  truth," 

We  reply.  So  are  many  professed  Chris- 
tians. If  the  faults  of  Christians  do  not  dis- 
prove the  Christian  scheme,  the'similar  faults 
of  scientists  do  not  contradict  the  tenor  of 
science.  We  should  judge  of  both  schemes 
by  their  best  types.  I  aver  that  the  pro- 
foundest  scientists  are  humble,  and  truth- 
loving. 

2.  "If  the  above  views  are  true,  Chris- 
tians should  make  the  best  scientists,"  says 
the   objector,   "and   this  is   contrary  to  ex- 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    95 

perience."  We  admit  the  inference  but 
question  the  assertion  of  fact.  Let  us  re- 
member that  science  is  concerned  immediately 
with  the  intellect,  and  that  moral  qualities, 
alone,  however  important,  will  not  make  a 
great  scientist. 

The  history  of  science  reveals  to  us  in  its 
leading  votaries,  many  instances  of  the  union 
of  high  Christian  qualities  with  great  merit 
as  philosophers.  Every  Christian  land  has 
furnished  such  examples.  Our  own  country 
could  supply  instances  from  every  section,  il- 
lustrating the  support  which  religion  and 
science  may  mutually  offer  in  the  genesis  of  a 
noble  character. 

I  shall  however  select  four  men  from  "  our  lit- 
tle mother  isle  "  as  the  genial  "  autocrat "  calls 
her ;  men  who,  by  universal  consent,  were  at 
the  very  front  of  Physical  Science  and  who,  at 
the  same  time,  were  devout  Christians.  The 
contemplation  of  such  characters,  in  which 
Christian  excellence  was  incarnate,  is  fuller 
of  stimulus  to  the  observer  than  hours  of 
mere  disquisition. 

Four  figures  (to  speak  only  of  the  dead) 


96  THE  NEW   TESTAMENT 

rise  before  us  of  supereminent  stature  among 
English  philosophers  of  the  last  century. 
Brewster,  Faraday,  Stokes  and  Clerk-Max- 
well, form  a  group  of  remarkable  interest,  of 
widely  different  mental  gifts,  but  alike  in 
moral  excellence. 

In  the  department  of  light,  in  which  the 
nineteenth  century  witnessed  remarkable  ad- 
vances, no  name,  among  experimentalists,  is 
more  distinguished  for  the  number,  variety 
and  importance  of  his  observations  than 
Brewster' s.  He  had  a  harsh  and  rugged  dis- 
cipline in  youth,  and  to  the  world  his  manner 
often  conformed  to  his  training.  His 
doughty,  trenchant  way  of  dealing  with  his 
opponents  and  critics  may  be  largely  at- 
tributed to  the  influence  of  his  early  conflict 
with  poverty.  Yet  beneath  the  rough  ex- 
terior was  a  loyal  loving  soul.  In  old  age, 
as  so  often  happens,  his  Christian  character 
developed  in  tenderness  and  charm.  Few 
narratives  are  more  delightful  than  the  one 
which  we  owe  to  the  filial  piety  of  his 
daughter,  Mrs.  Gordon.  Standing  by  his 
death-bed  she  said  to  him : 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    97 

"  You  will  see  Charlie." 

Gathering  himself,  he  answered  after  a 
pause : 

**  I  shall  see  Jesus,  who  created  all  things 
— Jesus  who  made  the  world — I  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is." 

Under  a  sculptured  window  of  "  Fair  Mel- 
rose "  Abbey,  in  a  white  marble  tomb,  sleeps 
the  mortal  form  of  this  great  philosopher. 
On  the  base  of  the  tomb  is  this  legend : 
"  The  Lord  is  my  light." 

Sir  George  Gabriel  Stokes,  Lucasian  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  in  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity, renowned  for  his  beautiful  experi- 
ments in  fluorescence  and  in  binocular  vision, 
and  scarcely  less  so  for  his  masterly  writings 
in  Mathematical  Physics,  was  singularly 
gifted  as  a  teacher  for  the  brightest  minds. 
His  fame  is  scarcely  more  surely  founded 
upon  the  publications  he  made,  than  upon 
the  pupils  he  taught  who  became  later  dis- 
tinguished in  science.  Men  like  Kelvin, 
Maxwell  and  Tait,  delighted  in  after  life  to 
acknowledge  their  debt  to  him.  They 
omitted  no  chance  of  profiting  by  his  counsel 


98  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

and  of  claiming  for  him  priority  in  discover- 
ies, when  he  seemed  too  modest  to  claim  it 
for  himself.  This  eminent  man  delighted  to 
acknowledge  his  Saviour.  We  may  discern 
his  influence  in  the  decided  Christian  char- 
acter of  his  famous  pupils,  who  owed  him  a 
great  debt,  not  only  for  the  great  intellectual 
stimulus  he  gave  them,  but  for  moral  uplift 
as  well. 

Sir  George  Stokes  was  an  active  member 
of  the  Victoria  Institute,  a  society  founded  in 
the  interest  of  anti-sceptical  science.  For 
years  he  took  part  in  its  work  and  his  ad- 
hesion constituted  an  important  part  of  its 
capital.  He  gave  the  Gifford  lectures  in  189 1 
and  his  subject  was  Natural  Theology.  He 
also  delivered  in  1887  the  Burnett  lectures, 
choosing  for  his  topic  Light,  and  treating  it 
as  a  Christian  philosopher  might  do.  He 
died  in  the  maturity  of  his  powers,  after  a 
long  life  of  service. 

Of  Clerk-Maxwell,  his  celebrated  pupil, 
who  died  when  still  comparatively  young, 
but  who  left  a  name  which  will  live  forever, 
— we  are  at  a  loss  whether  to  admire  the 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    99 

most  his  attractive  personality  and  charming 
traits,  or  his  brilliant  professional  labours,  and 
strikingly  original  powers.  He  was  a  con- 
spicuous example  of  the  need  and  value  of 
incessant  industry,  if  uncommon  mental  gifts 
are  to  achieve  lasting  results.  He  under- 
took to  interpret  Faraday  to  the  Mathemat- 
ical world  and  in  the  attempt  created  a  new 
department  of  Physics.  He  too  was  always 
a  reverent  devout  believer  of  the  Bible,  hon- 
ouring the  Lord.  He  closes  his  celebrated 
essay  on  Molecules  with  an  expression  of  his 
faith  in  Him,  "  who  in  the  beginning  cre- 
ated not  only  the  Heaven  and  the  Earth,  but 
the  material  of  which  Heaven  and  E^rth  con- 
sist." 

Michael  Faraday  was  the  son  of  a  black- 
smith. He  was  bom  in  a  blacksmith's  house 
and  died  in  Hampton  Court  palace,  where  he 
had  residence  at  the  Queen's  request.  It  is 
harder  to  rise  in  England  than  in  this  land. 
Only  those  of  very  superior  worth  can  over- 
come the  barriers  which  distinctions  of  rank, 
recognized  by  law  and  usage,  have  set  up 
not  only  in  society,  but,  by  its  pervasive  in- 


lOO  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

fluence,  in  all  lines  of  human  effort.  Merit 
must  be  great  to  overcome  low  birth,  but  if 
great,  it  will  overcome  it  in  grand  old  Eng- 
land. 

Faraday  was  bom  in  Surrey  near  London, 
in  1 79 1.  His  father  was  a  stout  Yorkshire 
man,  who  while  he  plied  his  hammer,  medi- 
tated on  the  Bible  and  doubtless,  as  stroke 
followed  stroke,  fancied  that  he  was  striking 
error  at  every  blow.  His  mother,  from 
whom  we  imagine  that  Faraday  got  his 
genius,  is  little  known  in  her  quiet  life.  She 
must  have  been  a  noble  woman,  for  her  great 
son,  amid  his  rising  honours,  never  ceased, 
while  she  lived,  to  show  her  a  devoted  affec- 
tion. It  is  natural  to  love  our  mothers,  but 
common  men  often  grow  ashamed  of  them, 
when  wealth  and  honours  are  won.  Faraday 
never  blushed  for  his  humble  origin,  nor  on 
the  other  hand,  did  he  ever  vulgarly  obtrude 
it.  On  proper  occasions  he  would  modestly 
own  his  liking  for  the  forge  and  anvil,  saying 
in  explanation,  that  his  father  was  a  black- 
smith. He  reminds  us,  in  this,  of  that  other 
great    Englishman,    Dr.    Samuel    Johnson, 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    lOI 

whose  affectionate  letters  to  his  mother  as 
long  as  she  lived,  do  him  more  honour  than 
the  Rambler,  and  will  be  tenderly  recalled 
when  Rasselas  ceases  to  be  read. 

Faraday,  in  boyhood,  naturally  had  the 
narrowest  opportunities.  He  says :  "  My 
education  was  of  the  most  ordinary  descrip- 
tion, consisting  of  little  more  than  the  rudi- 
ments of  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic  at  a 
common  day  school.  My  hours  out  of  school 
were  passed  at  home  and  in  the  streets."  He 
is  next  an  errand  boy  carrying  newspapers 
for  a  bookbinder ;  then  an  apprentice  to 
him — reading  the  books  he  was  learning  to 
bind.  His  mental  activity  thus  aroused, 
showed  itself  in  ways  that  were  sometimes 
ludicrous  ;  as  when  he  got  his  head  through 
the  bars  of  a  fence,  and  in  his  struggles  to 
get  free,  tried  to  solve  the  problem  "  which 
side  am  I  on  ?  " 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  was  then  lecturing  at 
the  Royal  Institution.  Faraday  was  lucky 
enough  to  get  tickets  for  four  lectures.  He 
took  notes,  neatly  transcribed  them,  and  sent 
them  to  the  great  chemist.      Sir  Humphry 


I02  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

was  struck  with  their  merit,  and,  being  a  gen- 
tleman, immediately  acknowledged  his  letter. 
Two  months  later  he  made  Faraday  his  as- 
sistant 

The  youth's  progress  was  now  rapid. 
Yet  it  is  not  astonishing  that  the  elegant, 
famous,  fashionable  and  highly  connected 
professor  should  not  discern  in  the  black- 
smith's boy  and  bookbinder's  apprentice,  the 
future  leader  of  the  science  of  England,  to 
whom  he  himself,  should  he  live,  would  look 
up,  not  down.  He  went  with  Sir  Humphry 
and  Lady  Davy  on  a  visit  to  the  Continent, 
and  sometimes  acted  as  a  valet  for  the  great 
man. 

No  wonder  then,  that  in  1823,  when  at  the 
age  of  thirty-two,  Faraday  was  proposed  as 
a  member  of  the  Royal  Society,  his  patron  and 
superior  opposed  his  election.  It  should  be 
said  that  Davy  soon  abandoned  his  doubts,  ac- 
quiesced in  the  election  already  made  almost 
unanimously,  and  gave  the  young  philoso- 
pher assurance  of  his  esteem  and  friendship. 

It  speaks  still  more  for  Faraday  that  the 
episode  left  no  wound  in  his  spirit.     Twelve 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    I03 

years  later  he  said,  "Whenever  I  have 
ventured  to  follow  in  the  path  which  Sir 
Humphry  Davy  has  trod,  I  have  done  it 
with  respect  and  with  the  highest  admira- 
tion of  his  talents,  and  nothing  gave  me 
more  pleasure  in  my  last  paper  than  the 
thought  that  ,  .  .  I  was  able  to  support 
the  views  advanced  twenty-eight  years  ago 
and  for  the  first  time  by  our  great  philoso- 
pher." 

His  connection  with  the  Royal  Institution 
began  in  1813  and  ended  with  his  life  in 
1867.  It  was  made  memorable  by  the 
greatest  series  of  scientific  discoveries  that 
have  marked  any  half  century  in  the  history 
of  our  race,  all  due  to  this  one  man. 

The  practical  application  of  his  discoveries 
makes  up  a  large  part  of  the  mechanical 
wonders  of  this  age.  The  entire  field  of 
electrical  invention — telegraph,  telephone, 
electric  lighting,  locomotion,  and  transmis- 
sion of  power  began  with  his  discoveries 
seventy-five  years  ago.  Not  only  so,  but 
his  later  researches  led  to  a  complete  revolu- 
tion in  the  theory  of  electricity.     Faraday  led 


I04  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

to  Maxwell,  Maxwell  to  Hertz,  and  Hertz 
to  Marconi,  and  thus  to  telegraphy  without 
wires. 

Faraday's  failures  even  were  sometimes 
fruitful.  One  experiment  of  his  made  in  his 
seventieth  year  and  rendered  abortive  simply 
by  lack  of  a  sufficient  instrument,  repeated 
by  a  successor  (Zeeman)  more  fortunately 
situated,  has  given  to  the  latter  worldwide 
fame. 

The  English  lad,  who  in  1800  was  playing 
marbles  in  the  streets  of  London,  had  made 
his  chief  discoveries  before  he  was  fifty-five 
years  old.  From  an  early  date,  honours  were 
poured  upon  him  from  foreign  lands.  His 
own  government  offered  him  a  pension. 
Though  he  was  poor,  he  declined  it.  Mer- 
cantile houses  sought  his  alliance.  He 
would  not  listen  to  them.  Men  were  mak- 
ing fortunes  by  using  his  discoveries.  He 
did  not  disparage  commerce  and  money- 
making.  But  he  had  no  time  for  it.  He 
had  chosen  another  calling,  and  would  not 
mix  the  two.  He  not  only  declined  wealth, 
but  he  declined  social  rank.     He  might  have 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE   105 

been  a  Knight  or  Baronet.  He  preferred 
to  remain  poor  and  untitled.  Noble  man  I 
When  rank  and  wealth  shall  be  forgotten  in 
the  long  ages,  your  diadem  will  shine  with 
increasing  brightness. 

Faraday  did  not  spend  all  his  time  in  re- 
search. At  intervals  he  appeared  in  the 
theatre  of  the  Royal  Institution  as  a  lecturer. 
Perhaps  he  enjoyed  most  of  all  his  Christmas 
lectures  to  children.  The  simplicity  and  crys- 
tal clearness  of  his  expositions,  the  freshness 
and  felicity  of  his  experiments,  charmed  and 
instructed  not  only  his  juvenile  hearers,  but 
the  learned  men  in  his  audience.  He  was  in 
body  small,  though  not  feeble ;  of  singular 
alertness  and  quickness  of  movement,  with  a 
bright  unresting  eye,  and  of  remarkable  dex- 
terity in  his  manipulations. 

He  had  the  mauvaise  honte  of  many  Eng- 
lishmen of  renown.  Mr,  Vincent,  Librarian 
of  the  Royal  Institution,  delighted  to  show 
visitors  how  Faraday  would  trot  into  the 
lecture  theatre,  where  a  distinguished  com- 
pany had  assembled,  and  not  seeming  to 
notice  them  at  all,  turn  to  his  assistant  and 


I06  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

make  some  remark  about  the  fire  in  the  grate 
and  then  about  the  subject  he  had  to  speak 
of,  facing  about  to  his  hearers  while  doing  this 
and  thus  imperceptibly  gliding  into  his 
lecture. 

We  have  given  a  slight  sketch  of  Faraday, 
the  philosopher.  There  was  another  side  to 
this  great  man. 

He  was  a  devout  Christian  and,  for  a  while, 
a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  His  father  and 
grandfather  had  been  members  of  a  small 
sect  cut  off  by  Robert  Sandeman  from  the 
Presbyterian  church,  but  retaining  the  car- 
dinal doctrines  of  that  religious  body.  Young 
Faraday  was  strictly  brought  up  and  with  his 
parents  was  every  Sunday  at  the  Sandemanian 
meeting  house.  Being  trained  up  in  the  way 
he  should  go,  when  he  became  old,  he  did  not 
depart  from  it.  As  he  grew  up  in  due  time 
he  was  admitted  to  the  communion  and  after- 
wards was  elected  an  elder,  which  office  carried 
with  it  the  duties  of  a  preacher.  Accordingly 
on  Sunday,  he  would  often  be  found  in  the 
pulpit.  There  was  a  striking  contrast  be- 
tween the  minister  in  the  sacred  desk,  before 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    107 

a  company  of  humble  people,  and  the  great 
philosopher  behind  the  lecture  table  of  the 
Royal  Institution,  with  Prince  Albert  and  a 
crowd  of  richly  dressed  ladies  and  gentlemen 
listening  to  him.  He  never  spoke  of 
electricity  in  the  pulpit,  nor  did  he  in  words 
mention  the  Bible  in  his  lectures.  This  was 
of  set  purpose,  and  in  conformity  with  the 
teaching  of  his  Church.  The  best  spirit  of 
his  science  in  conscientious  care  and  exactness 
characterized  his  sermons,  and  the  spirit  of  his 
religion  in  its  gentleness  and  winning  address 
and  unselfishness,  marked  his  lectures.  Fara- 
day seemed  to  feel  that  there  was  a  tempta- 
tion to  a  scientist  in  speaking  of  religion  to 
make  science  the  master  and  not  the  servant 
as  it  should  be. 

One  who  saw  him  in  both  spheres  thus 
contrasts  his  manner  in  the  church  and  in  the 
lecture  room.  "  The  overflowing  energy 
and  clearness  of  the  professor,"  says  he, 
"  were  replaced  in  the  pulpit  by  an  earnest- 
ness of  manner  best  summed  up  in  the  word 
devoutness.  His  object  seemed  to  be  to  make 
,  the  most  use  of  the  words  of  Scripture  and  to 


lo8  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

make  as  little  of  his  own  words  as  he  could. 
Hence  a  stranger  was  struck  first  by  the 
number  and  rapidity  of  his  references  to  texts 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  secondly 
by  the  devoutness  of  his  manner.  His  ser- 
mons were  always  extemporary  but  they  were 
prepared  with  great  care.  No  one  could 
lecture  like  Faraday  but  many  might  preach 
with  more  effect." 

Faraday  justified  his  exclusion  of  science 
from  sermons.  "  I  shall  be  reproached,"  said 
he,  "  with  the  weakness  of  refusing  to  apply 
those  mental  operations  which  I  think  good 
in  respect  of  high  things  to  the  very  highest. 
I  am  content  to  bear  the  reproach."  "  I  claim 
an  absolute  distinction  between  religious  and 
ordinary  belief."  "  Yet,"  he  adds,  "  even  in 
earthly  matters  I  believe  '  that  the  invisible 
things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the 
things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power 
and  godhead,'  and  I  have  never  seen  anything 
incompatible  between  those  things  of  man 
which  can  be  known  by  the  spirit  of  man 
that  is  in  him,  and  those  higher  things  con- 


IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE   I09 

ceming  his  future  which  he  cannot  know  by 
that  spirit."  Nature  is  no  substitute  for 
God,  but  may  be  a  helping  image  of  Him. 

Here  I  have  inadequately  drawn  for  you  a 
noble  life,  worthy  in  many  points  of  the  imi- 
tation of  any  young  man.  The  qualities  that 
shine  forth  in  him  most  lustrously  are  his 
humility,  his  simplicity,  his  love  of  truth  and 
his  extraordinary  power  of  seeing  the  invisi- 
ble. These  are  qualities  emphasized  both  in 
the  Bible  and  in  Christ's  record  in  Nature. 
Faraday  was  a  great  scientist  and  a  gfreat 
Christian — far  above  the  mass  of  men  in  both 
characters,  and  a  convincing  witness  of  the 
truth  that  Science  in  her  highest  form  does 
homage  to  our  Lord. 


LECTURE  III 


SCIENTIFIC  HINTS  IN 
BOTH     TESTAMENTS 


LECTURE  III 

SCIENTIFIC  HINTS  IN 
BOTH     TESTAMENTS 

IN  comparing  the  records  which  Christ 
has  given  us  in  His  word  and  His  works, 
it  is  wise  for  us  to  remember  that  it  is 
our  interpretation  of  them  which  we  are  han- 
dling. There  are  two  sciences  in  question, 
that  of  Biblical  Exposition — Hermeneutics — 
and  that  of  the  Physical  World — both  human 
sciences — both  incomplete — both  growing. 
Of  the  two.  Biblical  interpretation  is  far  more 
mature  and  advances  with  far  slower  steps  as 
the  ages  roll  on.  Yet  it  is  delightful  to  be- 
lieve that  the  treasure  house  of  sacred  learn- 
ing has  many  gems  yet  undiscovered  by  us, 
and  that  future  centuries  will  reveal  riches  in 
God's  word  now  unsuspected  by  His  servants. 
Especially  will  this  be  true  of  passages 
which  require  for  their  complete  comprehen- 
sion a  knowledge  of  external  nature  which  is 
113 


114  SCIENTIFIC   HINTS 

not  yet  possessed  and  may  not  be  ours  for 
long  years  to  come.  For  contrasted  with  our 
knowledge  of  the  Bible,  our  acquaintance 
with  Nature, — our  Physical  Science  as  we 
term  it, — is  lamentably  immature.  To  the 
greatest  minds,  we  seem  to  be  working  still 
in  the  selvage  of  science.  The  unknown 
seems  vaster  to  us  than  it  did  to  our  fathers. 
Our  painful  climbing  widens  the  horizon  of 
the  unexplored  and  makes  our  growing  at- 
tainments seem  relatively  more  and  more  in- 
significant. Growth  consists  in  discarding 
the  old  while  taking  on  the  new.  Science 
advances  by  "  trial  and  error,"  The  next  age 
will  use  the  knowledge  of  this  one  and 
largely  abandon  it.  Our  theories  serve  their 
purpose,  helping  us  forward  and  then  are 
forgotten. 

In  this  condition,  apparent  contradictions 
between  the  Bible  and  science  should  not 
alarm  us.  Such  contradictions  often  occur 
in  other  human  sciences,  as  when  geology 
needs  five  hundred  millions  of  years,  and 
physics  can  only  grant  a  tenth  of  this.  In 
such    cases    we   wait   and    work    and    keep 


IN  BOTH  TESTAMENTS  II5 

unruffled,  till  improved  knowledge  removes 
the  discrepancy. 

Nor  should  apparent  harmonies  between 
Scripture  and  Nature  unduly  elate  us.  The 
reconciliations  of  a  former  generation  seem 
to  us  now  sometimes  puerile.  Advancing 
knowledge  of  Nature,  still  in  its  infancy  we 
must  believe,  while  rendering  obsolete  some 
old  time  view  of  the  meaning,  earthward,  of 
some  Scripture  passages,  has  given  to  many 
others  a  significance  and  a  wealth  of  precious 
suggestion  heretofore  unsuspected. 

The  Bible  thus  becomes  richer  in  meaning 
as  our  knowledge  of  the  world  around  us 
grows.  In  its  inner  and  higher  life,  it  has  to  do 
with  what  is  independent  of  time  and  space, 
and  in  that  aspect  it  is  ever  young.  Unaf- 
fected as  it  is,  in  this  its  greatest  sphere  by 
the  progress  of  human  science,  it  may  yet  in 
many  delicate  expressions  and  illustrations, 
have  needed  light  thrown  on  the  higher 
world  by  the  analogies  and  harmonies  of  the 
lower  world.  As  the  Bible  uses  these  paral- 
lelisms between  the  two  in  metaphor,  and 
parable  for  the  elucidation  of  its  great  theme, 


Il6  SCIENTIFIC   HINTS 

are  we  not  justified  in  pursuing  our  inquiries 
still  further  in  order  to  find  images  of  the 
invisible  world  in  the  visible  world  about  us  ? 
These  considerations — namely  the  imma- 
ture and  partial  character  of  our  knowledge 
of  the  material  world,  and  the  present  rapid 
advance  of  that  knowledge,  quickly  making 
obsolete  much  of  what  was  held  to  be  tenta- 
tively true  in  the  recent  past, — should  expel 
dogmatism  and  make  us  humble  and  modest 
in  assertions  regarding  it.  There  is  however 
something  which  is  settled  in  science.  There 
are  some  principles  which  are  established,  and 
many  facts  in  which  the  only  change  brought 
to  them  by  the  Science  of  the  future  will  be  to 
move  them  by  emendations,  growing  smaller 
and  more  difficult  as  the  years  go  on,  to  a 
closer  proximity  to  the  truth.  As  regards 
the  rest  of  Science,  in  the  theories  held  pro- 
visionally of  various  lines  of  phenomena, — 
they  are  the  scaffolding  of  the  building — help- 
ing to  complete  it  and  so  to  assure  their  own 
abandonment.  In  these  speculations,  we 
have  only  bad  photographs  of  the  real  world 
— mental  pictures  of  what  philosophers  as- 


IN  BOTH   TESTAMENTS  II7 

sume  and  believe  the  world  to  be — often  very 
inadequate  and  distorted  representations  of 
the  actual  world,  the  true  picture  of  which  is 
in  the  mind  of  its  Maker. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  we  shall  present  to  you 
some  thoughts  regarding  the  relation  of  Sci- 
ence to  the  Scriptures,  without  dogmatism  or 
positiveness  and  with  submission  to  scientific 
authorities  in  various  departments.  While 
we  believe  the  views  which  we  shall  present 
to  be  just  and  well  founded,  so  far  as  our 
present  knowledge  goes,  we  would  still  hold 
them,  with  a  willingness  to  see  them  super- 
seded by  a  truer,  better  knowledge  which 
coming  years  may  have  in  store  for  us. 

We  have  before  remarked  that  the  refer- 
ences of  the  Bible  to  physical  nature  are 
mainly  of  two  kinds — one  including  a  few 
direct  positive  assertions  about  it,  funda- 
mental statements  which  we  must  believe  to 
be  true,  if  they  are  the  word  of  God.  Some 
of  these  we  have  already  studied.  Another 
class  of  these  references  is  designed  purely 
as  illustrative,  and  therefore  of  necessity  used 
the  science  of  the  times  and  its  philosophy. 


Il8  SCIENTIFIC   HINTS 

There  remain,  however,  in  both  Testa- 
ments, after  these  passages  are  removed, 
occasional  sentences  where  the  reference  to 
nature  is  often  not  apparent — or  if  suggested 
now  was  not  understood  until  perhaps  the 
progress  of  science  revealed  in  them  a  mean- 
ing, not  seized  by  those  who  first  heard  them, 
nor  by  any  reader  in  the  long  line  of  centuries 
since,  and  only  seen  by  us  in  these  last  days. 
So  there  may  be  passages  whose  full  sig- 
nificance is  hidden  from  us  but  will  be  ap- 
preciated perhaps  ages  hence  by  our  suc- 
cessors, when  future  science  has  lighted  up 
what  is  now  dark.  There  are  such  utterances 
in  the  Bible  which  we  may  well  believe  did 
not  appear  to  the  prophets  who  wrote  or 
spoke  them,  as  they  do  to  the  humblest  be- 
liever who  now  reads  them.  May  it  not  be, 
that  those  sentences  of  expanding  meaning, 
came  through  the  lips  and  mind  of  a  prophet 
from  a  higher  Spirit  in  whom  was  all  knowl- 
edge, and  who  filled  and  guided  the  former  ? 
It  is  to  some  of  these  scientific  hints  in  the 
Scriptures,  so   marked   and   clear  to  some, 


IN  BOTH  TESTAMENTS  tig 

that  they  cannot  be  thought  accidental,  that 
I  wish  to  ask  your  attention. 

LIGHT  BEFORE  THE  SUN 
The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  contains  a 
statement  that  has  always  appeared  most 
strange.  On  the  first  day,  God  is  declared 
to  have  created  light,  while  it  was  not  until 
the  fourth  day  that  He  made  the  sun,  moon 
and  stars.  Thus  the  creation  of  light  pre- 
ceded that  of  luminous  bodies.  Immemorial 
experience,  without  exception,  teaches  us  that 
to  have  light  we  must  somewhere  have  a 
self-luminous  body.  Our  light  is  gone  when 
our  lamp  goes  out,  and  does  not  reappear 
until  it  is  rekindled.  Day  begins  with  the 
approach  of  the  sun  to  our  horizon  and  night 
comes  when  he  retires. 

It  may  safely  be  said  that  no  human  com- 
position would  contain  what  would  in  the 
line  of  experience  be  so  obvious  an  error  as 
reversing  the  order  of  nature  and  putting 
the  effect  light  before  the  cause,  the  sun. 
Believing  this  to  be  no  human  composition, 


I20  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

commentators  in  all  ages  have  sought  to 
guess  the  meaning  of  this  paradoxical  state- 
ment at  the  very  opening  of  the  sacred  writ- 
ings. These  guesses  appear  to  be  usually 
most  inadequate  or  fanciful. 

A  widely  prevalent  speculation  of  former 
times,  upon  which  perhaps  the  majority  of 
Bible  readers  once  settled,  was  that  the  sun, 
moon  and  stars  were  really  created  on  the 
first  day,  when  light  was  commanded  to  ap- 
pear, but  that  enveloping  clouds  hid  their 
forms,  and  only  allowed  an  indefinite  illumi- 
nation to  stream  through  them.  On  the 
fourth  day,  the  mists  were  cleared  away  and 
the  bright  luminaries  were  first  seen  from  the 
earth.  Among  comparatively  modern  Exe- 
getes,  I  note  Lange  (1869)  who  declares 
"  without  doubt,  the  meaning  here  is  not 
merely  a  light-phenomenon,  which  goes 
forth  out  of  the  background  of  Heaven  and 
breaks  through  the  dark  vapours  of  the  earth 
or  from  heavenly  clouds  of  light  (such  as  the 
primary  form  of  the  creation  may  have  ap- 
peared to  be)  but  an  immediate  lighting  up 
of  the  luminous  element  in  the  earth  itself, 


IN   BOTH   TESTAMENTS  121 

something  like  what  the  Polar  light  gives 
rise  to  in  the  Northern  Aurora."  Somewhat 
less  Teutonic  is  the  writer  in  the  Pulpit  Com- 
mentary (1881),  who  believes  that  "the  cre- 
ation of  light  was  in  reality  the  evolution 
from  the  dark  robed  seething  masses  of  our 
condensing  planet  of  that  luminous  matter 
which  supplies  the  light." 

A  better  conjecture  in  the  eyes  of  the 
physicist,  was  that  of  Richard  Watson,  who 
living  at  the  time  of  the  revival  in  England 
of  the  wave  theory  of  light  thought  that  the 
creation  of  the  first  day  was  of  the  Undula- 
tory  Ether  ;  the  preparation  for  light  without 
which  the  sun  could  not  shine  for  us.  Yet 
we  know  now  that  Light  is  Energy,  and  the 
Ether  is  not  Energy,  but  merely  its  vehicle  ; 
and  so  the  conjecture  of  that  eminent  the- 
ologian fails  to  satisfy  us.  The  progress  of 
science  since  Watson's  time  would  give  his 
keen  intellect,  were  he  living  now,  a  better 
view. 

Modern  science  tells  us  that  light  does 
not  come  from  the  sun  as  its  source.  The 
energy  we  receive  from  his  rays  did  not  origi- 


122  SCIENTIFIC   HINTS 

nate  with  the  great  orb.  The  sun  and  stars, 
like  our  artificial  lights  on  earth,  merely  give 
us  what  they  have  received.  They  are  only 
transferrers  and  transformers  of  an  energy 
they  did  not  create.  The  power  contained  in 
the  light  was  in  the  world  before  the  sun  or 
stars  began  to  shine.  That  active  energy  in 
Nature  is  everywhere  the  liberated  form  of 
great  stores  of  dormant  power,  which  we  call 
potential.  This  latter  is  locked  up  for  in- 
stance in  fuel  and  food,  and  in  every  colloca- 
tion of  matter  which  is  in  strain. 

When  God  said  "  Let  there  be  light,"  may 
it  not  be  that  He  spoke  into  being  that  vast 
treasure  of  potential  energy  in  the  universe 
connected  perhaps  with  universal  ether, 
which  has  been  the  capital  used  for  its 
transactions  ever  since  ?  Light  is  the  high- 
est, subtlest  form  of  the  great  treasure  when 
it  passes  into  activity,  and  so  may  be  a  name 
for  it  all. 

The  subsequent  creation  of  sun  and  stars 
would  only  be  the  introduction  of  the  mech- 
anism by  which  this  precious  capital  has  been 
localized  and  transformed  and  radiated  so  as 


IN   BOTH   TESTAMENTS  1 23 

to  serve  the  purposes  of  vision.  If  this  be 
so,  this  Scripture  is  Hving  truth  to  us,  filled 
with  a  wisdom  which  was  four  thousand 
years  in  advance  of  the  time  when  it  was 
written — and,  this  paradox  like  all  para- 
doxes of  real  knowledge,  is  removed  by  the 
removal  of  our  ignorance  concerning  its 
subject 

THE  INTRODUCTION  AND  PROGRESS  OF 
LIFE  ON  THE  EARTH 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  tells  us,  as  we 
know,  not  only  of  the  origin  of  matter  and 
energy,  but  also  of  the  beginning  and  de- 
velopment of  life  on  the  earth.  The  inter- 
pretation of  these  simple  massive  sentences, 
up  to  a  time  within  the  memory  of  living 
men,  was  strictly  literal.  The  days  were 
taken  to  be  our  present  days  of  twenty-four 
hours.  The  act  of  creation  was  interpreted 
to  be  a  sudden  exhibition  of  omnipotence, 
bringing  to  pass  the  event  in  an  instant  of 
time.  This  exposition  however  was  not 
universal. 

A    century  and    a    half  ago,  a  hundred 


124  SCIENTIFIC   HINTS 

years  before  the  publication  of  Murchi- 
son's  Siluria,  a  great  naturalist  and  engi- 
neer of  Sweden,  who  afterwards  became 
a  great  religious  leader,  Emanuel  Sweden- 
borg,  held  the  view,  we  are  told,  that  the 
early  chapters  of  Genesis  were  purely 
allegorical  and  not  historical,  thus  meeting 
and  setting  aside  the  skeptical  criticism  of  a 
later  time.  The  geological  discoveries  of 
the  nineteenth  century  were  hailed  in  their 
very  inception  and  immaturity  as  wholly 
inconsistent  with  the  Biblical  narrative.  I 
would  call  to  your  attention  the  fact  that 
several  of  the  ablest  of  these  scientists,  like 
Murchison  abroad  and  Dana  of  our  land, 
upon  a  review  and  estimate  of  established 
facts,  did  not  feel  obliged  to  abandon  the 
Bible.  Living  men  can  recall  the  glowing 
sentences  of  the  Scottish  geologist,  Hugh 
Miller,  as  he  depicted  the  vision  of  the  past 
history  of  the  earth  from  its  creation,  caused 
by  divine  power  to  pass  before  the  mental 
eye  of  the  inspired  writer  of  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis, — vast  periods  being  compressed 
into  days,  and  the  rehearsal   being  like   a 


IN  BOTH   TESTAMENTS  I25 

moving  picture  of  creation.  I  do  not  propose 
even  to  mention  the  various  interpretations 
which  have  in  time  been  offered  by  ingenious 
men  of  learning  and  piety  with  regard  to 
these  primitive  records.  Perhaps  we  are  not 
even  yet  advanced  enough  to  decipher  them. 
Perhaps  the  advancing  knowledge  of  the 
earth,  and  the  improved  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  as  well,  will  in  some  future  age  shed  a 
great  and  satisfactory  light  on  this  celebrated 
ancient  geogony.  Meanwhile  I  wish  to  point 
out  a  feature  of  it,  which  seems  to  me  to 
demonstrate  its  superhuman  origin. 

The  Scriptural  account  of  the  evolution  of  life 
under  the  inspection  and  power  of  the  Deity, 
is  so  strangely  different  from  popular  thought 
even  in  later  times  and  certainly  in  the  days 
when  these  documents  were  written,  and  so 
like  the  teachings  of  present  day  science, 
that  it  is  incredible  they  could  have  been 
written  by  unaided  human  wisdom.  The 
sacred  writer  declares  that  the  first  life  was 
vegetable,  the  next  marine,  next  birds,  then 
terrestrial  beasts,  closing  in  the  appearance 
of  man.     The  modern  geologists  affirm  that 


126  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

the  earliest  stratified  rocks  contain  no  undis- 
puted animal  fossil  forms,  but  they  do  have 
undeniable  evidence  of  the  existence  at  the 
time  of  plants,  probably  in  very  considerable 
amount,  considering  the  quantity  of  graphite, 
iron  oxides  and  limestone  that  are  the  signs 
of  vegetation. 

Then  in  immediate  sequence  stratigraph- 
ically,  come  the  Palaeozoic  rocks,  filled  with 
evidences  of  marine  life  passing  from  sim- 
ple forms  up  to  fishes  and  aquatic  reptiles. 
The  latter  are  followed  by  amphibious 
forms,  and  these  give  place  to  terrestrial 
reptiles — presently  putting  on  avian  char- 
acteristics, capable  of  flight,  with  membran- 
ous wings  and  later  on  feathered  tails,  be- 
coming bird  reptiles  and  finally  reptilian 
birds,  until  they  graduate  into  true  birds, 
monarchs  of  the  air.  Then  the  four  footed 
beasts  appear,  and  these  at  last  make  room 
for  lordly  man,  the  last  and  highest  of  earthly 
forms. 

Such  is  the  sequence  of  life  in  the  story 
of  the  rocks.  Such  is  the  sequence  of 
life   in    the   sacred    record.     Contrast   with 


IN   BOTH   TESTAMENTS  1 27 

the  simplicity,  the  clearness,  the  scientific 
parallelism  of  the  Biblical  account,  that  of 
the  so-called  Babylonian  Creation  Tablets. 
Their  utterances  are  nebulous  and  vague; 
often  so  obscure  that  one  may  find  in  them 
what  he  brings  to  them.  One  of  them  makes 
beasts  the  first  creation,  another  of  them  puts 
man  at  the  beginning — and  their  order  is 
both  incomplete  and  unscientific. 

Now  an  observant  writer  three  thousand 
years  ago,  might  have  imagined  that  plants 
preceded  animals.  He  might  have  noticed 
that  at  the  last  analysis  all  animal  life  is  sup- 
ported by  the  plant,  and  so  have  assumed 
that  the  vegetable  kingdom  appeared  first, 
but  such  a  writer  would  doubtless  have  intro- 
duced in  immediate  succession  the  land  ani- 
mals whose  needs  led  him  to  this  assumption. 
Yet  in  geology  long  ages  intervene.  Again 
what  man  in  a  former  age  would  have 
dreamed  that  birds  came  after  reptiles  and 
from  them  and  that  they  in  regular  succession 
followed  these  marine  forms?  Sixty  years 
since  even  geologists  called  the  reptilian 
tracks  of  the  Portland  red  sandstone,   bird 


128  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

tracks  ;  **  ornithichnites."     Even  they  at  that 
time  had  no  suspicion  of  the  truth. 

The  writer  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis 
shows  a  correspondence  not  with  the  science 
of  his  time,  but  with  that  of  three  thousand 
years  later,  which  the  accepted  doctrine  of 
probabilities  makes  it  impossible  to  attribute 
to  a  fortunate  guess. 

A  LIVING  SACRIFICE 

A  very  significant  passage  of  the  New 
Testament  is  that  wherein  St.  Paul  exhorts 
his  Roman  brethren  by  the  mercies  of  God 
to  present  their  bodies  a  living  sacrifice  which 
he  declares  is  their  reasonable  service  (Ro- 
mans 12 :  i). 

A  sacrifice  is  not  complete  without  the 
death  of  the  victim.  Were  the  latter  to  live, 
there  would  be  no  sacrifice.  The  knife  or  the 
flame  must  complete  its  work.  A  living  sac- 
rifice seems  at  first  glance  to  be  an  impos- 
sibility. To  the  Christians  addressed,  the 
words  must  have  conveyed  a  startling  para- 
dox. How  life  and  death  could  be  true  at 
the  same  time  of  the  same  being  must  have 


IN  BOTH  TESTAMENTS  1 29 

been  hard  for  them  to  see.  It  was  easy  to 
see  that  life  and  death  succeed  each  other  in 
endless  alternation.  Life  follows  death  as 
surely  as  death  follows  life.  One  thing  dies 
that  another  and  perhaps  a  better  may  live. 
The  apostle  in  another  epistle  powerfully 
uses  the  dying  of  the  seed  and  germination 
of  the  plant  as  figuring  the  resurrection  of 
the  body.  Poets  and  orators  from  time  im- 
memorial have  availed  themselves  of  this 
fact  of  universal  experience,  which  repetition 
never  seems  to  stale,  for  death,  however  com- 
mon, is  never  trite. 

The  passage  in  hand  involves  a  different 
thought, — that  life  and  death  may  be  coex- 
istent in  each  individual.  The  science  of  our 
time  gives  to  this  Scripture,  we  venture  to 
believe,  a  new  force  by  an  analogy  which  we 
cannot  but  feel  was  in  the  mind  of  Him  from 
whom  the  phrase  first  came. 

Our  friends,  the  biologists,  tell  us  that  a 
living  being,  animal  or  plant — such  as  those 
we  know  best — is  a  unit  indeed  but  a  highly 
complex  unit,  with  special  organs  devoted  to 
special    uses.     All    these    organs,   when   in 


I30  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

health,  are  coordinated  and  help  to  a  com- 
mon end,  the  welfare  of  the  individual.  The 
organs  themselves  are  wonderfully  complex ; 
reducible  to  tissues,  and  these  in  the  last  anal- 
ysis to  cells.  The  striking  fact  is  that  none 
of  these  tissues  are  permanent.  All  are 
changing  more  or  less  slowly  and  at  any  in- 
stant their  phases  present  all  possible  varieties 
of  advancement  or  retrogression.  Many  are 
increasing,  many  are  decreasing;  all  are 
changing.  There  are  two  great  processes  in 
life — the  change  which  is  a  rise,  and  the 
change  which  is  a  descent.  It  used  to  be  a 
popular  conceit,  that  the  human  subject 
changes  so,  that  after  seven  years  no  atom 
of  the  body  remains  the  same.  Recent  au- 
thorities assure  us  that  with  regard  to  the 
larger  part  of  our  mass,  a  few  months  suffice 
for  a  complete  renewal.  Our  life  then  is  a 
constant  movement  of  damage  and  repair; 
growth  and  decay  ;  life  and  death.  We  live 
daily  and  we  die  daily,  if  death  be  cessation 
of  function.  The  ratio  of  these  simultaneous 
processes  of  regeneration  and  degeneration, 
may,  in  a  rough  sense,  be  said  to  determine 


IN  BOTH   TESTAMENTS  I31 

the  date  in  the  life-period  at  which  an  indi- 
vidual has  arrived.  When  production  ex- 
ceeds dissolution,  he  is  advancing  towards 
maturity,  to  be  reached  when  they  become 
equal,  and  to  be  followed  by  the  coming  of 
old  age,  when  decay  predominates. 

Our  conception  of  this  complexity  of 
changes,  called  living,  is  vastly  enlarged, 
when  we  are  told  that  the  condition  of  living 
is  one  of  unstable  equilibrium,  kept  from  over- 
throw by  the  incessant  interference  of  the 
guiding  principle  of  life,  just  as  a  moving 
bicycle  is  maintained  erect  by  constant  mi- 
nute arrests  of  incipient  falls  by  the  rider  above. 
The  whole  fabric  tumbles  when  life  is  with- 
drawn. While  it  is  present,  its  victorious 
office  involves  a  struggle  in  which  a  multi- 
tude of  other  living  points,  called  microbes, 
are  arrayed  as  enemies  or  friends.  These 
innumerable  changes  no  more  affect  identity, 
than  substitutes  replacing  the  soldiers  falling 
in  battle  affect  the  identity  of  the  regiment. 
Death  is  as  inseparable  from  life  in  nature,  as 
one  end  of  a  line  or  one  face  of  a  leaf  from 
the  other. 


132  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

The  apostle's  metaphor  shines  out  to  us 
now  with  new  force  and  meaning.  It  is,  as 
if  he  said,  "  Your  earthly  life  is  a  living  sac- 
rifice; you  are  dying  daily,  that  you  may 
live.  Let  it  be  so  with  these  same  bodies,  as 
to  your  spiritual  life."  Some  things  must  be 
abandoned  that  other  higher  things  may  keep 
on  rising.  Such  is  the  history  of  every  noble 
life.  It  sacrifices  love  of  pleasure,  love  of 
ease,  of  honour  and  applause,  that  upon  them 
may  rise  love  of  man  and  God. 

Death  then  does  not  seem  to  have  been  re- 
garded by  the  saints  as  an  evil.  To  the 
Christian  it  finally  is  only,  as  a  great  preacher 
terms  it,  a  passing  through  a  veil,  a  very  thin 
veil,  into  an  adjoining  room.  To  the  apostle 
it  seemed  in  a  high  sense  to  be  the  insepara- 
ble condition  of  life,  and  therefore  with  us  al- 
ways :  so  that  perhaps  what  one  calls  death, 
others  may  call  life,  just  as  sunset  to  us  is 
sunrise  to  another  continent. 

THE  LAWS  OF  ENERGY  IN  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

Among  the  undesigned,  and  therefore  pe- 
culiarly   impressive,   hints    of    fundamental 


IN  BOTH   TESTAMENTS  133 

physical  law  which  we  occasionally  meet  with 
in  the  Bible,  none  have  appeared  to  me  to  be 
more  remajkable,  than  a  sentence  of  St. 
Paul's  in  his  letter  to  the  Philippians  (Phil. 
II,  12).  It  is  translated  thus  in  the  "Twen- 
tieth Century  New  Testament" : 

"  Therefore,  my  dear  friends,  as  you  have 
always  been  obedient  in  the  past,  so  now 
work  out  your  own  salvation  with  reverence 
and  awe  and  that  not  only  when  I  am  with 
you  but  all  the  more  now  that  I  am  away. 
Remember  that  it  is  God  who,  in  His  tender- 
ness is  at  work  now  that  I  am  away." 

This  version  is  much  closer  to  the  meaning 
of  the  original  Greek  than  that  of  King  James, 
or  even  that  of  the  revisers  of  1884.  Yet  sev- 
eral delicate  points  are  almost  of  necessity 
lost  in  the  translation,  especially  in  that  part 
of  the  sentences  which  I  wish  to  bring  for- 
ward. 

rrjv  iaura}'.!  ffiorrjpiav  RaTtpydXsffOe,  0£o^  yap  lariv 
6  ivtpywv  h  ufiTv  kai  t6  OiXsiv  roL  to  ivepyeiv  uizep 
Ti)<t  evdoK  I'a^, 

To  the  physicist,  this  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  passages  in  literature,  sacred  or 


134  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

profane.  The  author  was  not  thinking  of 
physics,  for  it  as  yet  had  no  existence ;  and 
yet  these  two  sentences  contain  by  direct 
expression  and  by  implication  the  four  funda- 
mental laws  of  energy ;  the  very  vitals  of 
modern  physics.  Nay,  sixteen  hundred  years 
and  more  before  Thomas  Young,  who  uses 
the  now  accepted  name  for  this  wonderful 
power,  the  word  energy  occurs  twice  in  this 
short  passage  of  St.  Paul's  and,  in  its  root, 
a  third  time.  If  we  might  paraphrase  the 
apostle's  utterance  in  the  scientific  language 
of  our  own  day,  it  would  run  somewhat  thus, 

"  Pass  your  energy  on,  as  your  safety  re- 
quires ;  for  the  energy  by  which  you  will  and 
work,  is  from  God." 

He  tells  His  spiritual  children,  that  in  the 
Christian  life,  they  are  merely  the  transferrers 
and  transformers  of  energy,  and  not  its  crea- 
tors and  originatorSo  God's  energy  is  trans- 
ferred to  them,  and  then  it  is  transferred  from 
them,  in  Christian  work,  to  the  world  about 
them.  It  was  given  to  them  in  the  one  form 
of  grace  and  transmuted  by  them  into  a 
thousand   forms   of  well-doing.     In   all  this 


IN   BOTH   TESTAMENTS  135 

they  had  not  added  any,  having  only  given 
what  they  received.  The  law  of  conserva- 
tion as  well  as  that  of  transfer  and  transfor- 
mation is  recognized.  But  more  than  this, 
the  apostle  clearly  teaches  that  "  willing  "  is 
necessary  to  "  doing  "  and  that  divine  energy 
is  required  for  each.  "  Willing "  unlocks 
the  potential  energy  of  grace,  and  makes 
it  active  or  kinetic,  in  "  doing."  Thus  the 
strange  and  sublime  parallelism  of  the  moral 
and  physical  worlds  is  beautifully  brought 
out.  Hidden  from  the  reader  in  the  previous 
centuries,  it  shines  forth  to  us  like  a  facet 
of  a  long  known  jewel  only  now  disclosed. 
How  wonderful  that  the  most  precious  truths 
of  recent  science  should  be  found  concealed 
in  a  sentence  of  twenty  words  written  more 
than  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  If  you 
tell  me  that  St.  Paul  could  not  have  had 
such  anticipation  of  present  day  science  con- 
sciously in  his  mind  when  he  said  these 
words,  I  am  forced  to  believe  that  a  greater 
than  he  was  speaking  through  him.  It  was 
Paul  plus  Christ,  and  as  the  finite  vanishes 
in  presence  of  the  infinite,  I  hear  no  one  but 


136  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

Christ.  None  but  the  Maker  of  the  worid 
could  know  it  so  well.  Doubtless  multitudes 
of  other  sentences  in  the  Scriptures  will  also 
phosphoresce  with  new  light  when  the  radia- 
tions of  future  science  are  turned  upon  them. 
Let  us  consider  this  pregnant  statement 
of  Scripture  a  few  moments  longer,  in  order 
to  appreciate  its  wholesome  lessons.  The 
growing  plant  receives  from  the  sun  daily 
supplies  of  energy.  Of  the  copious  floods 
of  heat  and  light  which  envelop  our  planet, 
a  part  is  appropriated  by  living  vegetation. 
These  supplies  of  invisible  power  are  mate- 
rialized in  the  visible  facts  of  growth.  In  all 
this  the  plant  is  merely  a  receiver.  For  its 
health,  something  more  is  needed.  It  must 
transform  and  give  out  this  energy  in  leaf 
and  flower  and  fruit.  It  must  give  it  out  in 
producing  a  multitude  of  seeds,  and  thus 
carry  on  the  life  of  the  species.  There  are 
two  ways  of  killing  a  plant.  One  is  to  shut 
it  off  from  the  sun,  and  thus  deprive  it  of 
light,  heat,  and  moisture.  It  grows  pale  and 
feeble,  and  perishes.  An  equally  effective 
way  is  to  let  it  enjoy  the  sunshine,  but  to 


IN  BOTH  TESTAMENTS  I37 

keep  it  from  giving  out  its  energy.  Pluck 
off  its  leaves  and  blossoms.  Let  it  not  bear 
fruit,  and  it  soon  ceases  to  be  able  to  bear 
fruit. 

So  the  bird  that  is  prevented  from  flying, 
singing  and  nesting,  dies  as  surely  as  the 
bird  that  is  starved. 

The  star  that  is  active  is  the  shining  star. 
Invisible  stars  are  dead  and  cold.  The  Sea 
of  Galilee  and  the  Dead  Sea  are  fed  by  the 
same  waters.  The  Jordan  pours  its  bright 
flood  into  each.  Yet  Gennesareth  Lake  is 
sparkling  and  clean  because  it  gives  as  well 
as  receives.  While  the  Asphaltite  Lake  is 
bitter  and  foul,  because  it  receives  and  never 
gives. 

All  nature  is  replete  with  instances  of  the 
truth  of  St.  Paul's  words.  The  melody  of 
a  musical  sound,  coming  through  the  air, 
strikes  with  its  unseen  waves  a  thousand 
things.  Only  a  few  of  them  perhaps  can 
vibrate  in  sympathy,  and  they  at  once  ab- 
sorb the  passing  energy,  but  only  to  give  it 
out  straightway  in  music  themselves.  The 
"  working  in  "  is  immediately  associated  with 


138  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

"working  out."  Thus  one  source  of  music 
may  awaken  a  multitude  of  kindred  singers, 
and  make  the  whole  air  resonant  with  its 
melody. 

So  the  glorious  sun  sends  out  incessant 
floods  of  energy  in  forms  we  know  and  it 
may  be  in  other  forms  not  now  suspected. 
These  streams  flow  out,  enveloping  in  their 
progress  planet,  comet,  and  meteor-swarm — 
all  of  which  take  in,  in  different  degrees,  the 
passing  treasure.  They  pay  it  back  in  the 
colours  of  nature,  the  blue  sky,  the  green 
sea,  the  shining  disc  and  in  those  invisible 
forms  that  mitigate  the  rigour  of  space  and 
make  the  planet  habitable,  or  lock  it  up  in 
coal  beds  to  have  it  liberated  in  some  future 
age,  when  the  fuel  glows  cheerfully  in  the 
grate. 

Our  views  of  the  universal  fact  of  "  work- 
ing in  "  and  "  working  out "  being  inevitably 
associated  in  nature  as  in  morals,  have  been 
immeasurably  extended  in  recent  years.  A 
new  department  of  physics,  as  noticed  on  a 
preceding  page,  has  been  created  in  the  dis- 
covery of  molecular  radiation  and  transfor- 


IN  BOTH   TESTAMENTS  1 39 

mation,  or  what  is  now  called  radioactivity. 
It  has  brought  to  our  knowledge,  as  before 
mentioned,  the  previously  unsuspected  fact 
that  the  very  ultimate  elements  of  matter,  the 
molecules  of  some,  and  perhaps  of  all  orders 
are  themselves  the  repositories  of  tremendous 
amounts  of  energy,  which  some  of  them  are 
incessantly  giving  out,  and  yet  have  such  a 
store  that  they  may  take  many  thousands  of 
years  before  they  are  completely  exhausted. 
But  we  also  know  that  this  energy  was 
received  from  some  previous  store.  It  must 
have  been  "  worked  in,"  though  the  process 
of  building  up  the  molecule  may  have  been  a 
speedier  one  than  that  of  "  working  out,"  just 
as  it  may  take  but  a  few  moments  to  wind 
up  a  clock,  which  will  take  a  year  to  run 
down. 

We  have  before  indicated  that  the  sug- 
gestions of  this  remarkable  scripture  do  not 
end  here.  In  the  endless  transformations  of 
energy  in  nature,  much  is  put  into  the 
"  locked-up  "  or  dormant  form  called  poten- 
tial— such  as  they  tell  us  exists  in  our  coal  beds, 
our  mountain  lakes,  in  all  fuel  and  food,  in 


I40  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

gunpowder  and  dynamite,  and  perhaps  many 
unsuspected  forms  in  whicli  the  things  next 
to  us  may  be  rich — all  these  stores  awaiting 
some  directing  touch  at  the  right  place  to  be 
released  and  expend  themselves  in  a  thousand 
modes  of  useful  activity.  In  many  cases  the 
magic  touch  involves  an  act  of  volition  on  the 
part  of  the  living  being.  The  act  of  the  will, 
like  the  engine  driver's  grasp  on  his  lever, 
looses  the  giant  and  sets  going  the  train. 
The  willing  starts  the  doing.  It  is  the 
essential  prerequisite  in  action,  both  in  the 
kingdom  of  Nature  and  of  Grace.  Paul  de- 
clares that  the  divine  energy  supplies  power 
for  the  willing  as  well  as  the  doing  All  is 
God's,  and  then  all  is  the  Christian's.  The 
working  is  the  transfer  of  the  energy.  Work 
it  out,  for  God  works  it  in  you,  and  He  does 
it  of  His  own  good  will. 

This  tremendous  passage  of  St.  Paul's 
seems  as  full  of  science  as  it  is  of  religion. 
Does  any  one  say  again  that  it  is  incredible 
that  the  writer  could  have  had  in  conscious 
apprehension  the  world  of  physical  truth  we 
have  seen  that  it  holds?    To  us  the  improba- 


IN  BOTH   TESTAMENTS  I4I 

bility  that  the  real  author  of  the  wonderful 
sentence  should  not  have  meant  what  it 
means  to  us  is  on  mathematical  grounds  so 
great  that  it  cannot  be  entertained  by  a 
rational  being.  The  difficulty  does  not  exist 
to  the  Christian.  It  was  St.  Paul's  sentence 
just  as  fully  as  though  he  were  uninspired, 
and  it  was  God's  sentence  as  fully  as  though 
St.  Paul  were  only  His  mouthpiece.  If  I 
may  be  allowed  to  give  a  very  inadequate 
simile,  the  piano,  on  which  Beethoven  played, 
we  may  imagine  to  be  endowed  with  life, 
consciousness,  intelligence  and  will  and  to 
become  automatic.  Let  its  will  be  altogether 
one  with  Beethoven's  so  that  what  the  great 
composer  wishes  to  do  is  just  what  the  in- 
strument wills  to  do.  The  music  will  then 
be  the  piano's  and  at  the  same  time  the 
master's.  It  may  well  be  that  the  in- 
telligent piano  would  not  realize  all  that 
the  great  performer  puts  into  the  tran- 
scendent harmony.  Thus  the  words  of 
Luke  and  John  and  Paul  are  the  words 
of  Christ,  and  the  words  of  His  inspired 
servants  as  well. 


142  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

HARMONY  OF  THE  TWO   WORLDS 

Did  time  allow,  we  might  find  other  scien- 
tific hints  in  the  Bible  which  strongly  and 
powerfully  remind  us  of  truth  in  the  material 
world — old  spiritual  truths  suggesting  new 
physical  truths.  The  two  worlds  of  nature 
and  grace  seem  to  be  strangely  parallel  to  one 
another.  The  analogies  between  them  have 
arrested  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful  in  all 
ages.  The  greatest  teachers  have  found 
boundless  resources  of  illustration  and  in- 
struction in  these  parallelisms.  Our  Divine 
Master  used  them  freely  and  often.  Phi- 
losophers have  accounted  for  them  in  various 
ways.  Leibnitz  declared  there  were  only 
three  ways  of  doing  so.  Said  he,  if  two 
clocks  were  found  to  run  together  so  that 
each  one  always  indicated  exactly  the  same 
time  as  its  companion,  it  might  be,  firstly, 
because  there  is  a  mechanical  connection  be- 
tween the  two,  compelling  them  to  run  to- 
gether ;  or,  secondly,  some  invisible  agent  by 
continual  touches,  now  forward  and  now  back- 
ward, may  make  one  clock  keep  exactly  with 
the  other ;   or,  thirdly,  from  a  preestablished 


IN  BOTH  TESTAMENTS  I43 

harmony,  the  two  instruments  were  so  con- 
trived and  adjusted  by  a  sufficient  intelligence 
that  they,  though  physically  unconnected,  yet 
starting  together,  would  always  be  together. 
The  third  explanation  was  the  one  adopted 
by  this  great  philosopher. 

The  great  Scandinavian  scientist  and  re- 
former, Swedenborg,  who  was  not  the  infe- 
rior of  Leibnitz  in  scientific  matters,  was  the 
author  of  a  view  which  reminds  us  of  the  lat- 
ter's  first  hypothesis,  save  that  the  connection 
between  the  two  worlds  in  his  view,  while  not 
mechanical,  was  equally  effective  and  con- 
trolling. Swedenborgfs  doctrine  of  corre- 
spondences is  founded  on  a  great  array  of  un- 
deniable facts  in  human  observation  and  ex- 
perience. The  great  Northern  leader  no 
doubt  pushed  it  to  lengths  to  which  many  of 
us  find  it  difficult  to  follow  him.  He  appears 
to  teach  that  a  causal  relation  exists  between 
the  two  worlds  so  that  the  changes  in  the  vis- 
ible sphere  accompany  those  in  the  invisible, 
as  instantly  and  closely  as  the  image  in  a  mir- 
ror copies  an  object  and  its  movement. 

In  our  times  a  young  Scottish  naturalist 


144  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

and  religious  teacher,  Professor  Drummond, 
has  given  a  solution  of  the  problem  which  is 
quite  startling.  He  declares  that  the  paral- 
lelism in  the  two  worlds  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  laws  of  nature  extend  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  the  natural  world  and  cover  the 
spiritual  world  as  well.  Their  working  is  in 
his  view  not  analogical  but  identical.  The 
position  which  the  gifted  Scotsman  supported 
with  a  glowing  rhetoric  that  captivated  the 
world,  is  very  hard  for  some  students  to  ac- 
cept. It  would  be  easy  to  admit  if  one  were 
a  materialist  or  an  idealist,  for  then  the  sub- 
stance of  both  worlds  would  be  the  same. 
But  to  others,  the  difficulty  at  the  confines  of 
the  two  spheres,  where  the  law  would  operate 
on  matter  on  the  one  hand  and  spirit  on  the 
other  is  very  great. 

After  all,  the  student  of  the  Bible  is  not  shut 
up  to  any  of  these  theories.  Leibnitz's  three 
possible  cases  do  not  exhaust  the  question  as 
he  seemed  to  think.  Neither  world  is  a  clock 
— or  mechanical  system — but  a  sequence  of 
phenomena  in  which  the  Almighty  Author 
is  ever  immanent.    The  Absentee  God  exists 


IN   BOTH   TESTAMENTS  I45 

not  in  the  thought  of  the  Christian.  The  two 
worlds  are  the  simultaneous  revelations  of  one 
and  the  same  omniscient,  omnipresent  Being , 
Their  harmony  is  therefore  inevitable. 

I  live  in  the  shadow  of  the  mountain  on 
which  Thomas  Jefferson  had  his  home.  We 
could  once  see  there  many  features  of  his  do- 
mestic life — in  his  peculiar  views  as  to  con- 
venience, privacy  and  hospitality,  shown  in 
the  disposition  of  the  apartments  and  the  fur- 
niture which  filled  them.  This  private  record 
told  of  his  method,  his  neatness,  his  original- 
ity, his  industry.  But  there  was  another  rec- 
ord ;  his  public  acts,  and  his  wide  correspond- 
ence and  state  papers.  They  reveal  the 
same  Jefferson  whom  his  neighbours  knew 
already  from  his  home  life. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  harmony  of  the 
natural  and  spiritual  worlds  is  like  the  har- 
mony made  by  the  right  and  left  hands  of 
some  great  pianist.  The  parts  are  on  differ- 
ent portions  of  the  keyboard,  but  they  march 
together.  The  one  is  independent  of  the 
other  and  might  exist  alone,  yet  each  is  in- 
complete  without  the    other.      The    higher 


146  SCIENTIFIC  HINTS 

strains  of  the  right  hand  are  in  exact  concord 
with  the  lower  ones  played  with  the  left.  One 
does  not  cause  the  other  as  Swedenborg 
thought,  nor  are  they  mechanically  united  so 
as  to  be  necessarily  coexistent,  nor,  in  fine, 
are  they  the  result  of  a  preestablished  har- 
mony from  eternity  as  Leibnitz  imagined. 
Their  unity  and  harmony  are  not  in  and  of 
themselves,  but  in  the  one  artist  who  makes 
them  both^  He  makes  every  concord  and  we 
stop  short  of  the  truth  if  we  pause  at  the 
music  or  the  instrument  and  do  not  pass 
to  Him. 

Is  it  not  true  then  that  Christ's  worlds  are 
each  incomplete  without  the  other?  The 
world  of  matter  needs  the  illumination  of  the 
higher  world  for  its  satisfactory  study,  while 
the  loftier  world  is  not  completely  understood 
without  the  help  of  the  lower  one,  and  in  both 
we  fail  of  their  deepest  meaning  if  we  do  not 
push  on  to  Christ,  the  author  of  both. 


LECTURE  IV 
CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 


LECTURE  IV 
CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

AMONG  the  great  teachers  of  the  world, 
Christ  is  remarkable  for  His  habitual 
use  of  illustrations  drawn  from  the 
external  world,  especially  the  scenes  and  ob- 
jects of  the  region  He  moved  in.  The  plants 
and  animals,  the  landscape  and  skies  of  Gali- 
lee were  a  treasury  He  constantly  drew  from. 
Listen  to  one  discourse.  These  familiar  sen- 
tences are  always  beautiful. 

"Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,"  "Ye  are 
the  light  of  the  world,"  "Let  your  light 
shine,"  "  Your  Father  maketh  His  sun  to  rise 
,  .  .  and  sendeth  His  rain,"  "  Lay  not  up 
treasures  on  earth,  where  moth  and  rust  cor- 
rupt," "The  light  of  the  body  is  the  eye," 
"  Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air,"  "  Consider  the 
lilies  of  the  field,"  "A  good  tree  cannot  bring 
forth  evil  fruit,"  "  A  wise  man  built  his  house 

upon  a  rock  and  the  rain  descended  and  the 
149 


I50  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew  and  beat 
upon  that  house  and  it  fell  not."  And  so  al- 
ways, whether  speaking  to  the  throng  or  to 
one  hearer, — the  multitude  by  the  seaside  or  to 
Nicodemus  at  night,  or  the  Samaritan  woman 
at  the  well,  the  Master  found  the  wind,  and 
the  water,  the  sea  and  the  sky,  full  of  spirit- 
ual meaning.  To  Nicodemus  He  said,  "  The 
wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth."  To  the 
woman  of  Sychar,  "  Whoso  drinketh  of  this 
water  shall  thirst  again." 

Contrast  Him  in  this  love  of  Nature  with 
other  teachers  before  Him.  Put  a  page  of 
the  sermon  on  the  mount  by  the  side  of  a 
leaf  from  Confucius  or  a  dialogue  of  Plato. 
There  is  the  same  difference  as  there  is  be- 
tween a  herbarium  and  a  garden.  The 
earthly  teacher  is  lofty,  dry  and  contemptu- 
ous of  the  rabble.  The  divine  teacher  is 
simple,  loving,  and  observant  of  every-day 
life.  The  highest  ability  is  that  which  sees 
the  wealth  existing  in  common  things. 

These  allusions  to  Nature  give  us  an  in- 
sight into  a  beautiful  feature  of  the  character 
of  the  Saviour.     He  must  have  been  a  close 


CHRIST'S   LOVE   OF  NATURE  15I 

observer  of  the  external  world.  The  boy  of 
Nazareth  had  a  keen  eye  for  the  changing 
seasons,  the  starry  heavens,  the  glowing  sun- 
sets. He  loved  the  rocks  and  hills  about 
Nazareth,  and  doubtless  knew  every  nook, 
every  hidden  dell  with  its  murmuring  brook. 
From  the  neighbouring  height  He  had  often 
looked  over  the  great  rich  plain,  with  its 
waving  corn-fields  and  bright  river  threading 
between.  He  saw  Carmel  like  a  crouching 
lion  grandly  framing  in  the  picture  on  the 
south  and  west,  and  Tabor  and  Gilboa 
towards  the  east,  while  snow-crowned  Her- 
mon  guarded  the  north.  Great  events  had 
taken  place  in  that  scene,  of  which  Joseph 
and  Mary  often  told  Him. 

The  smiling  plain  below  Him  had  been 
watered  with  blood.  It  was  the  battle- 
ground of  nations  and  the  thoroughfare  of 
the  armies  of  Assyria  and  Egypt.  There  on 
Tabor,  Barak  had  smitten  Sisera,  and  near 
Gilead,  Gideon  had  overwhelmed  the 
Midianites.  On  Gilboa,  Saul  and  Jonathan 
had  perished.  On  the  heights  of  Carmel 
just  before  Him  Elijah  had  triumphed  over 


152  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

the  prophets  of  Baal,  and  near  Megiddo, 
good  King  Josiah  had  fallen  by  the  hand  of 
the  Egyptian  Necho.  It  may  be  that  divine 
prescience  momentarily  illuminated  the  lad's 
mind  and  He  saw  the  hosts  of  the  Crusaders 
and  the  onset  of  Saladin  at  the  Horns  of 
Hattin,  and  later  on  the  veterans  of  Napoleon 
crushing  the  Mamelukes. 

We  have  been  used  to  think  of  Palestine 
as  an  uninviting  region,  treeless,  bare  and 
hot.  Very  different  is  the  fact  as  narrated 
by  one  who  travelled  there  last  spring.*  He 
exclaims : 

"  Oh,  the  flowers  of  Galilee !  The  half  was 
not  told  me  of  their  profusion  and  beauty. 
No  wonder  our  Saviour  bade  His  hearers 
*  consider  the  lilies."  He  must  have  loved 
flowers,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  think  how  much 
His  beauty-loving  soul,  debarred  from  so 
much  that  we  enjoy  in  art,  must  have  de- 
lighted in  the  wealth  of  colour  and  the  glory 
of  form  in  which  God  has  clothed  the  grass 
of  the  field  in  Galilee.  I  thought,  years  ago 
in  the  Engadine,  that  I  should  never  again 

*  Christian  Work  and  Evangelist. 


CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE  1 53 

SO  revel  in  flowers.  All  the  fields  and  moun- 
tainsides are  so  covered  with  them  as  to  look 
like  a  Persian  carpet.  But  the  Engadine 
flowers,  though  of  every  colour  of  the  rain- 
bow, and  so  profuse  that  you  can  hardly 
drop  a  pin  and  not  touch  one,  are  yet  all  of 
one  sort.  In  Galilee  there  is  an  incredible 
variety  not  only  of  colours,  but  of  species  and 
families  of  plants.  The  clovers  alone  would 
suffice  to  make  the  country  beautiful,  so 
varied  are  they  in  size  and  form  and  texture 
and  mode  of  blossoming,  to  say  nothing  of 
colour,  and  the  clovers  are  only  one  of  more 
than  fifty  sorts  of  flowers  that  we  saw  be- 
tween Nazareth  and  Tiberias.  There  would 
be  acres  of  a  single  sort  of  purple  salvias,  or 
deep  blue  lupins,  or  cream-coloured  cistus, 
golden  gorse,  or  any  one  of  twenty  other 
kinds,  and  between  the  splendid  'purple 
patches '  would  be  any  number  of  other  sorts. 
Of  course  it  is  spring,  and  the  flower  season ; 
but  I  am  told  that  after  the  dry  and  thirsty 
land  has  forgotten  all  the  rains,  both  '  early ' 
and  'later,'  and  the  flowers  that  are  not  so 
beautiful  have  passed  away,  then  the  thistles 


154  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

will  come  out  in  all  their  glory  and  quite 
make  good  the  lack  of  other  flowers.  One 
need  not  live  long  in  Syria  to  feel  sure  that 
the  curse — if  it  was  one — of  '  thorns  and  this- 
tles '  was  spoken  of  this  country.  All  winter 
long  I  have  been  delighted  with  the  pictur- 
esque shapes  and  exquisite  markings  of  a 
great  variety  of  white  or  dark  green  vernal 
leaves  growing  close  to  the  soil,  and  on  ask- 
ing what  they  were,  have  always  been  told : 
'Oh,  that's  a  sort  of  thistle.'  Now  these 
plants  are  thrusting  up  long  flower  stalks, 
some  of  them  as  tall  as  mulleins,  and  making 
ready  to  blossom.  I  counted  seventeen  va- 
rieties the  other  day  on  a  walk  of  a  quarter 
of  a  mile,  and  I  am  told  that  the  blossoms  of 
some  of  them  are  superbly  beautiful  and  that 
they  illumine  all  the  land  after  everything 
else  is  parched  and  dried.  One  of  the  count- 
less things  worth  seeing  in  the  library  of  the 
Syrian  Protestant  College  at  Beirut  is  the 
herbarium  of  the  thistles  of  Syria.  I  am 
afraid  to  say  how  many  varieties." 

Christ  was  a  mountain  boy  and  a  moun- 
tain boy  never  ceases  to  love  the  hills.     So 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  ^55 

in  after  life,  Christ  always  sought  the  moun- 
tains, when  He  wished  to  rest  or  pray,  or  speak 
to  His  disciples  alone.  Other  teachers  pre- 
ferred the  forum  or  the  porch.  He  is  the 
teacher  of  the  mountain,  which  by  its  eleva- 
tion, its  stability,  its  bright  light  and  open 
air,  was  the  fit  symbol  of  His  doctrine.  The 
forum  and  the  porch  are  gone.  The  moun- 
tain remains,  and  the  sermon  on  the  mount 
bids  fair  to  outlast  the  mountain  itself.  Dis- 
courses on  these  solitary  heights,  far  away 
from  all  that  could  interrupt  by  sound  or 
sight,  must  have  seemed  like  voices  from 
heaven. 

And  when  again  He  retired  thither  to  pray 
alone,  He  had  a  closet  fit  for  the  Son  of  God. 
The  canopy  above  was  lighted  by  the  silent 
stars ;  the  earth  beneath  was  out  of  sight  and 
hearing.  Both  place  and  time  seemed  made 
for  communion  with  the  Creator  of  all. 
Eternity  and  heaven  seemed  natural  subjects 
there.  Cato  said  that  he  was  never  less  alone 
than  when  alone.  Christ  was  not  lonely  on 
the  mountain.  His  Father  and  the  holy- 
angels  were  with  Him. 


156  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

Happy  is  the  man  who  loves  the  deep 
forest  or  the  mountainside.  If  he  is  of 
meditative  cast,  he  feels  no  lack  of  society 
there — all  that  is  artificial  in  life,  all  vulgar 
display  of  fashion  or  wealth,  the  petty  calls  of 
business  or  pleasure, — these  are  gone,  and 
great  thoughts  of  a  higher  world  and  de- 
parted friends  and  love  and  hope  enter  and 
fill  the  soul.  A  traveller  tells  us  of  his 
feelings,  when  once  by  chance  he  was  left 
for  half  a  day  on  the  snow  near  the  base  of 
Monte  Rosa.  Around  him  in  every  direction 
stretched  for  miles  the  smooth  white  surface 
of  the  upper  glacier,  rimmed  at  a  distance 
with  great  snowy  peaks, — the  Breithorn,  the 
Matterhom,  the  Weisshorn,  the  Mischabel — 
and  behind  him  the  twin  summits  of  Monte 
Rosa.  In  all  that  expanse  was  no  sign  of 
living  thing  beside  himself.  Man  and  his 
works  were  as  if  they  had  never  been.  Soli- 
tude indescribable — but  silence,  peace,  rest, 
had  universal  sway. 

The  Master,  by  His  constant  employment 
of  natural  objects  and  events,  in  metaphor, 
simile  and  parable,  gives  to  all  teachers  a 


CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE  157 

useful  model.  The  highest  success  belongs 
to  those  who  can  enliven  their  instruction 
with  apt  analogies  from  the  world  about  us. 
The  higher  world  seems  to  cast  its  shadows 
on  the  lower.  Every  movement  in  the  one 
has  its  parallel  in  the  other.  Nothing  is  more 
inspiring  than  the  fertility  of  nature  as  a 
source  of  illustration.  The  mine  has  been 
used  for  many  centuries  but  the  ore  is  plenty 
yet.  He  who  would  be  master  of  assemblies 
must  be  able  to  draw  at  will  from  this  inex- 
haustible supply.  He  must  love  and  study 
nature.  This  is  the  beauty  of  the  mother's 
teaching.  Our  childhood's  lessons  and  songs 
are  full  of  metaphor,  and  when  we  grow  old, 
we  still  rejoice  to  learn  by  parable.  >^sop's 
fables  have  been  from  of  old  the  teacher  of 
all  ages,  child  and  sage.  In  childhood  we 
delight  to  sing  of  the  "  little  drops  of  water  " 
and  "the  little  grains  of  sand,"  while  in 
mature  life  we  are  stirred  by  the  grand  word 
painting  of  Shakespeare  as  he  sings  of  "  the 
cloud  capped  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces 
and  solemn  temples,"  and  their  transitory 
character.     Many  of    the    most    celebrated 


158  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

passages  of  the  great  dramatist  are  only  an 
artist's  picture  of  nature.  He  knew,  like  the 
Master,  the  power  of  such  illustrations  over 
old  and  young.  The  teacher  who  has  that 
love  of  nature  and  knowledge  of  her  ways,  is 
admirably  equipped  for  his  work. 

But  the  aptness  and  fertility  of  illustrations 
drawn  from  nature  are  not  more  striking 
than  the  universality  of  its  use.  Not  only  all 
ages  but  all  races  of  men  are  best  instructed 
by  analogies,  drawn  from  the  visible  world. 
The  Oriental  peoples,  permitted  or  obliged 
by  their  climate  to  spend  so  large  a  part  of 
their  lives  in  the  open  air,  and  in  lands  where 
the  sun  puts  so  much  of  its  energy  into  mag- 
nificent plants  and  noble  animals,  have  a 
literature  which  is  full  of  allegory.  In  the 
frozen  North,  the  richness  is  transferred  from 
the  snow-covered  earth  to  the  splendid  lights 
of  their  heavens.  The  bard  in  Iceland,  like 
his  brother  in  the  vale  of  Cashmere,  clothes 
his  thoughts  in  the  garb  which  nature  offers 
him.  The  one  uses  the  meteor  and  the  polar 
light  where  the  other  sings  of  the  rose  and  the 
nightingale.    The  unity  of  our  race  is  plainly 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  1 59 

shown  in  the  universality  of  this  practice.  As 
water  quenches  the  thirst  of  all  races  alike,  so 
all  delight  to  be  instructed  by  fable,  allegory 
and  parable  and  such  a  fact  shows  that  they 
are  of  one  blood. 

But  its  universality  is  not  more  striking 
than  its  variety.  Would  a  speaker  be  ever 
fresh  and  interesting,  let  him  live  close  to 
nature,  in  any  of  her  provinces.  He  will  find 
his  increasing  store  of  knowledge  to  be  an 
inexhaustible  treasury  of  suggestion  and 
illumination.  People  never  grow  weary  of 
first  hand  illustrations.  To  find  new  mean- 
ings in  familiar  things  is  irresistibly  engag- 
ing and  pleasing.  It  strikes  one  like  a  new 
discovery.  If  the  fact  be  new  as  well,  its 
power  is  less,  but  still  unmistakable.  The 
infinite  variety  of  Nature  is  like  the  infinite 
number  of  melodies  that  may  come  from  a 
single  instrument.  Paganini,  Vieuxtemps, 
Wilhelmj,  all  used  the  same  simple  four- 
stringed  violin.  Each  drew  from  it  a  won- 
derful series  of  beautiful  strains,  character- 
istic of  himself,  and  stamped  with  his  peculiar 
genius.      No  one  repeated  the  other's  com- 


l6o  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

position,  yet  all  together,  and  all  the  masters 
of  the  violin  beside,  have  not  exhausted  its 
possibilities.  Future  virtuosos,  for  centuries 
to  come,  will  find  in  it  new  treasures  of 
melody  and  harmony,  and  then  leave  thou- 
sands of  combinations  of  tone  unrevealed. 
Nature,  like  her  author,  is  infinite. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  greatest  painters 
do  not  paint  the  least  thing  from  their  own 
imagination  of  what  it  ought  to  be,  if  by  pos- 
sibility they  can  get  an  actual  model  of  it. 
They  seek  among  the  faces  of  a  crowded  city 
for  the  face  they  want.  The  attitude,  the 
pose  of  limb,  the  swelling  muscle  are  all 
copied,  not  conceived.  They  will  not  paint 
the  folds  of  a  robe  or  the  form  of  a  clinging 
scarf  from  memory  or  fancy.  The  artist  may 
have  glorious  visions  of  sky  and  landscape — 
of  face  and  form.  He  paints  not  from  these 
but  from  nature,  owning  by  this  that  she  is 
above  art,  and  that  he  must  humbly  learn  at 
her  feet 

It  is  worth  noting,  that  Christ,  in  His  habit- 
ual employment  of  the  objects  and  events  of 
the  world  about  us,  to  make  dear  divine 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  l6l 

truth,  never  allows  the  beautiful  simile  to  be 
so  prominent  as  to  draw  attention  from  its 
object.  His  illustrations  are  always  subordi- 
nate. We  have  known,  in  the  case  of  other 
teachers,  the  illuminating  comparison  to  be 
made  in  such  detail  and  at  such  length,  that 
the  real  purpose  and  meaning  were  lost  and 
the  accessory  became  the  principal.  It  is 
then  like  the  splendid  robe  in  a  modiste's 
window,  which  draws  attention  away  from 
the  waxen  figure  within — whereas  an  illustra- 
tion should  be  like  the  same  robe  on  a  beau- 
tiful woman,  and  be  only  noticed  on  a  second 
glance.  Our  Saviour's  practice  is  a  valuable 
lesson  in  the  proper  use  of  such  rhetorical 
adjuncts.  His  love  of  Nature  is  not  more 
obvious  than  His  teaching  that  she  is 
handmaid  not  mistress.  Listening  to  Him, 
we  think  of  the  Father's  care,  then  of  the 
lily  and  the  sparrow — the  strait  gate  does 
not  hide  the  way  to  heaven,  but  reveals 
it.  Webster's  morning  drumbeat,  on  the 
other  hand,  saluting  the  flag  of  England 
and  circling  the  globe,  is  repeated  by  ad- 
miring thousands  who  know  nothing  of  and 


l62  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

care  nothing  for  the  connection  in  which  it 
was  introduced. 

In  striking  contrast  with  Christ's  love  of 
nature  and  the  constant  use  He  made  of 
it  is  the  barrenness  of  natural  metaphor  and 
simile  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles.  The 
chiefest  among  them,  St.  Paul,  is  singularly 
restrained  in  the  use  of  natural  events  for  the 
purpose  of  explanation  or  illustration.  The 
few  times  in  which  he  allows  himself  to  intro- 
duce such  aids,  emphasize  themselves  by  their 
rarity.  He  likens  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  to  the  germination  of  the  seed  ;  and  the 
ranks  of  the  redeemed  to  the  different  glory 
of  the  stars.  We  may  well  believe  that  the 
great  practical  features  of  the  message  which 
the  apostles  bore — sin,  repentance,  faith, 
holiness — to  a  world  sunk  beyond  our  imagi- 
nation in  the  most  outrageous  and  open  forms 
of  vice,  so  filled  their  souls  as  to  leave  no 
space  for  thoughts  of  illustration.  Exhorta- 
tions to  a  drowning  man  to  seize  the  rope  we 
fling  to  him,  are  apt  to  be  brief  and  unadorned. 
The  spiritual  peril  of  their  hearers  absorbed 
their  entire  attention,  and  Nature  and  Art 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  163 

were  forgotten.  How  else  could  a  highly 
educated  scholar  like  Paul,  who  knew  the 
great  classics,  and  had  a  soul  sensitive  to  the 
beautiful,  stand  amidst  a  throng  of  Athenians 
on  Mars  Hill  with  the  wondrous  Parthenon 
before  him,  crowning  a  mighty  array  of  lesser 
temples,  and  the  great  statue  of  Athena 
towering  above  him  in  flashing  light  from 
her  helmet's  plume  and  glistening  spear,  and 
fail  to  notice  them  even  by  a  word  ?  Their 
ruins  draw  less  gifted  men  from  distant 
lands  and  reward  their  journey.  Paul's 
speech  as  reported  might  have  been  made 
in  a  desert 

Is  it  possible  that  this  strange  oblivion  of 
his  surroundings,  or  insensibility  to  them, 
may  have  been  partly  due  to  a  defect  of 
vision  ?  Quite  a  number  of  passages  in  his 
letters  support  the  familiar  tradition  that  the 
great  apostle  suffered  from  some  affection  of 
his  eyes,  that  was  quite  obvious  to  all  who 
saw  him.  May  it  be  that  Paul  bore  through- 
out life  marks  of  that  memorable  incident  on 
the  road  to  Damascus,  when  he  was  stricken 
to  the   ground   by  a  brightness  above  the 


1 64  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

splendour  of  the  noonday  sun?  It  is  quite 
possible  that,  while  his  sight  was  restored 
sufficiently  for  the  ordinary  daily  intercourse 
of  life,  his  vision  of  distant  objects  was  im- 
perfect. It  may  be  that  he  bore  through  life 
in  his  face,  about  his  eyes,  the  effects  of  that 
dazzling  stroke  of  light,  so  that  those  who 
met  him  on  the  street  would  look  at  him 
and  ask  about  him.  "This  is  the  man," 
they  would  be  told,  "  who  saw  the  Lord  in 
glory  and  was  struck  blind."  What  an  affect- 
ing sight  it  must  have  been  to  those  who 
loved  him  and  his  Master,  to  have  thus  con- 
stantly recalled  the  stirring  history  of  his 
strange  conversion.  He  had  seen  the  King 
on  His  throne — he  had  not  seen  Him  in  His 
humiliation  at  Jerusalem,  for  Paul  was  a 
proud  young  Pharisee,  engrossed  in  the 
study  of  the  law  under  the  great  doctors, 
and  no  doubt  disdained,  even  if  the  rumour 
reached  him,  to  seek  the  humble  Nazarene 
among  the  common  herd  of  Galileans.  But 
he  did  see  Him  exalted  and  seated  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,  and  had  little  sight  for 
aught  else  ever  afterwards. 


CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE  165 

However  that  may  be,  the  fact  that  Paul 
took  little  account  of  the  physical  world  as  a 
treasury  of  valuable  emblems  for  the  teacher 
need  not  trouble  us.  His  Master  did  show 
by  His  practice,  that  it  is  the  highest  wisdom 
to  make  such  use  of  nature.  We  need  no 
other  example  than  His  for  our  guidance. 
The  Master  is  greater  than  any  servant  of 
His.  Paul  himself  would  only  wish  us  to 
follow  him  as  far  as  he  followed  Christ. 

After  all,  we  must  not  expect  the  follower 
to  be  more  than  a  partial  copy  of  his  chief. 
Christ's  servants  are  finite  and  limited  in 
their  powers.  His  service  is  so  rich  and 
vast  that  it  requires  the  special  gifts  of  a 
multitude  of  men  adequately  to  fulfill  it 
The  man  of  sober,  dry  reason  is  needed.  So 
is  the  plodding  scholar ;  the  man  of  poetic 
genius  and  rich  imagination  is  needed.  So 
too  the  man  of  hot  emotion,  the  man  of  im- 
perial will,  and  the  gentle  spirit  that  meekly 
follows  its  leader — all  are  needed.  Paul, 
Peter,  John,  Augustine,  Francis,  Bernard, 
Luther,  Melanchthon,  and  a  host  beside,  no 
two  of  whom  are  alike,  are  required  for  the 


1 66  CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE 

infinite  work  of  expressing  their  Master  to 
men.  In  all  the  coming  time,  in  the  devel- 
opment and  enlargement  that  awaits  hu- 
manity and  the  varied  forms  of  achievement 
which  will  elevate  the  race,  the  Christian 
scheme  welcomes  and  will  find  ample  room 
for  all. 

With  the  evidences  of  Christ's  love  of  Na- 
ture before  us,  it  seems  strange  that  in  so 
many  ages  of  the  church.  Christians  have 
looked  with  suspicion  if  not  with  enmity  on 
the  study  of  the  visible  creation.  They  feared 
or  believed  that  it  led  away  from  the  Master 
not  to  Him.  When  the  honest  votaries  of 
science  were  led  to  views  of  the  world  dif- 
ferent from  those  which  pious  people  had 
formed  from  a  hasty  interpretation  of  Biblical 
expressions,  never  meant  to  teach  science, 
they  were  at  once  classed  with  the  infidels, 
and  their  learning  was  denounced  as  irrelig- 
ious. It  is  not  Galileo,  whom  in  this  day  we 
look  upon  as  wrong,  but  the  churchmen  who 
pursued  him.  We  have  learned  slowly  that 
to  reject  a  creed  is  not  of  necessity  irrelig- 
ious, and  that  honest  search  for  truth  is  a 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  167 

Christian  trait  in  the  scientist's  laboratory 
or  in  the  pastor's  study. 

Perhaps  this  antagonism  to  Natural  Science 
has  with  many  good  people  been  due  to  an 
unconscious  transference  of  the  term  "world" 
in  the  New  Testament,  meaning  the  then  ex- 
isting society  and  its  wicked  ways,  to  the 
visible  world  itself,  coupling  the  wicked  and 
their  habitation  together.  The  ancient  Per- 
sian myth  of  this  world  as  the  theatre  of  the 
activity  of  Ahriman,  the  Demon  of  Evil,  seems 
to  have  survived  in  Christian  lands,  in  the 
belief  that  Satan  had  much  to  do  with  natural 
events.  The  study  of  them  it  was  thought 
led  away  from  what  was  good,  and  at  least 
was  dangerous  to  faith.  The  pious  monk 
withdrew  not  only  from  society,  but  often 
into  desert  places,  away  from  the  beautiful 
in  nature,  her  singing  birds  and  laughing 
streams  and  waving  forests. 

Against  all  this  we  must  cite  the  example 
of  our  Lord.  He  loved  the  material  world. 
And  why  should  He  not?  It  is  the  work  of 
His  hands,  for  "  without  Him  was  not  anything 
made    that    was  made."     By  His  incessant 


1 68  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

power  and  oversight  it  is  maintained.  In  all 
its  infinite  variety  of  structure  and  function, 
we  may  see  the  signs  of  His  presence  and  ac- 
tivity. He  loves  His  own  work,  for  He  pro- 
nounced it  good.  His  followers  should  love 
it  too.  It  is  full  of  Him,  His  care,  His  love, 
His  forethought,  His  wisdom.  "  For  the  in- 
visible things  of  Him,  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by 
the  things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal 
power  and  Godhead."  "  He  left  not  Himself 
without  witness,  in  that  He  did  good  and 
gave  us  rain  from  heaven  and  fruitful  season 
filling  our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness." 
If  the  men  of  that  time  could  see  God's  power 
and  goodness  in  the  events  of  nature,  plainly 
revealed  in  what  was  open  to  all,  what  shall 
we  say  of  our  own  day,  when  the  child  knows 
more  than  the  sage  did  then.  Every  one  will 
agree  that  the  material  universe,  as  we  know 
it,  discloses  most  wonderfully  the  majesty  and 
might  of  the  Creator,  while  the  hidings  of  His 
power  in  the  great  realm  of  electricity  and  the 
world  of  the  atom  are  yielding  to  the  search- 
ing of  men  ineffable  lessons  of  His  wisdom. 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  169 

The  rapidly  increasing  knowledge  of  Nature 
is  bringing  out  into  clearer  light  that  there  is 
a  plan  in  the  world,  and  hence  there  must 
have  been  a  Designer.  What  the  material 
universe  taught  us  of  God  in  the  early  ages, 
it  still  teaches  with  increased  force  and  added 
richness.  The  multiplicity  of  facts  accumu- 
lating from  year  to  year  does  not  impair  the 
unity  of  creation.  The  great  trunk  is  branch- 
ing out  into  many  limbs,  and  these  are  blos- 
soming with  a  thousand  beauties,  but  it  is 
still  one  tree.  If  Christ  be  the  maker  of  all 
worlds,  there  must  be  harmony  between  all 
worlds.  If  the  worlds  visible  and  invisible 
are  from  the  same  hand,  correspondence  and 
parallelism  between  the  two  are  to  be  ex- 
pected. Neither  is  complete  or  entirely  in- 
telligible without  the  other.  They  are  com- 
plementary, because  they  came  from  the  same 
author,  not  by  accident  or  self-evolution.  The 
unity  of  the  creation,  physical  and  spiritual 
lies  in  the  unity  of  the  creator.  It  is  vain  to 
seek  for  the  unity  of  a  musical  composition  in 
the  vibrating  chords  or  the  ivory  keys,  bound 
together  as  they  are.     They  have  connection, 


I70  CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE 

but  none  to  account  for  the  great  motif.  The 
performer  explains  the  performance. 

If  these  things  be  true,  two  important  con- 
clusions follow : 

Firstly.  The  course  of  Nature  cannot  be 
fully  understood,  without  reference  to  the 
higher  world.  Many  lives  may  be  spent,  it 
is  true,  and  well  spent  in  the  research  into 
one  world  alone  or  even  a  small  part  of  one 
world.  It  still  remains  a  solemn  truth  that 
we  shall  never  know  the  material  world  with- 
out connecting  it  with  the  spiritual  world,  of 
which  it  is  the  shadow.  We  need  Christ  in 
our  Natural  Philosophy. 

Patient  work  in  the  laboratory  reveals  facts. 
A  dead  universe,  however  wonderful  or  vast, 
has  no  power  to  awaken  the  interest  of  an 
immortal  being.  But  how  is  that  universe 
lifted,  if  its  beauty  and  order  are  symbols  and 
results  of  the  movements  of  the  Divine  mind, 
repeating  themselves  by  contemplation  of  the 
material  in  the  mind  of  the  observer.  Even 
the  materialist  is  not  content  with  a  blank  re- 
cital of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  ending  in 
the  enumeration.     He  is  perpetually  associ- 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  17I 

ating  them  with  the  men  who  discover  them. 
Thus,  Comte  said  he  saw  in  the  movements 
of  the  planets  only  the  glory  of  Copernicus 
and  Newton.  How  much  loftier  did  the  Jew- 
ish king  rise  when  he  said  "  The  heavens  de- 
clare the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament 
showeth  His  handiwork  "  ? 

The  material  world  means  nothing  to  the 
brute.  It  means  little  more  to  the  savage, 
who  may  indeed  see  a  power  behind  the 
scenes,  but  a  malignant  power.  How 
worthy  of  its  boundless  extent  and  variety 
it  appears,  when  it  is  regarded  as  the  handi- 
work of  the  same  Being  whose  offspring  he 
is,  and  for  whose  education  it  was  made. 
Then  is  it  first  seen  that  the  smallest  portions 
of  it,  as  well  as  its  grandest  collections  and 
systems,  equally  express  the  Creator's  per- 
fections. The  tent  of  the  fairy,  Paribanou, 
could  when  folded  be  carried  in  the  pocket, 
but  when  spread  it  covered  a  great  army. 
The  stellar  universe  manifests,  under  the  eye 
of  Chalmers,  the  infinite  glory  of  a  Maker, 
but  not  more  perfectly  than  the  bit  of  radium 
bromide,  that  is  a  universe  in  miniature. 


172  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

I  repeat  it,  let  us  then  dismiss  the  fears  of 
our  forefathers,  that  the  right  study  of  nature 
is  dangerous  to  morals.  No  human  knowl- 
edge, not  even  the  study  of  theology,  can 
take  the  place  of  that  which  is  only  the 
Divine  gift,  attained  by  faith,  but  these 
human  sciences  rightly  used  may  power- 
fully support  and  cultivate  that  grace  in  the 
upbuilding  of  character.  Great  advances  in 
physical  sciences  were  made  during  the 
French  Revolution,  and  were  associated 
with  rank  infidelity,  but  the  science  was  not 
the  cause  of  the  infidelity.  The  French 
peasant  thinks  the  brightness  of  the  moon 
makes  him  ill  and  wilts  his  plants,  whereas 
it  is  the  thin  cold  air  that  does  both. 

Nature  is  no  substitute  for  grace,  but  is 
beautiful  as  a  humble  handmaid  to  it. 

But  secondly.  The  higher  world  is  not 
complete  without  the  lower.  The  relation  is 
reciprocal  but  not  equal.  Our  study  of  the 
Lord's  use  of  natural  things  warrants  us  in 
saying,  that  the  highest  use  of  the  temporal 
and  the  seen,  is  to  throw  light  upon  the  un- 
seen   and    eternal.     We    have    a    striking 


CHRIST'S   LOVE  OF  NATURE  1 73 

analogy  in  the  history  of  astronomy.  The 
science  of  the  heavens  made  slow,  painful 
advances  as  long  as  the  worlds,  celestial  and 
terrestrial,  were  regarded  as  independent  and 
unconnected.  When  Newton  demonstrated 
that  they  were  parts  of  one  and  the  same 
system,  the  result  was  speedy  and  marked. 
The  physics  of  the  earth  was  greatly  aided 
by  studying  the  same  forces  acting  in  the 
skies  under  far  simpler  conditions,  and  more 
than  all,  the  science  of  the  heavens — as- 
tronomy— was  aided  in  turn  from  the  earth, 
so  that  it  has  grown  more  in  two  centuries 
since  Newton,  than  in  twenty  centuries  before 
him. 

As  Christ  loved  Nature,  we  should  expect 
those  who  are  endowed  with  His  spirit  to 
love  it  too.  It  ought  to  be  very  easy  for 
them  to  do  so.  In  this  connection  I  would 
venture  humbly  to  appeal  to  those,  whose 
conversion  has  been  sudden,  to  support  the 
testimony  of  many  such,  that  the  world 
around  them  seemed  to  be  likewise  a  new 
creation.  There  was  a  brightness  in  the  light, 
a  beauty  in  the  landscape,  a  music  in  the 


174  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

sounds  of  nature,  as  if  a  new-bom  soul  had 
seen  and  heard  it  all  for  the  first  time. 
When  a  Christian  is  born  again,  all  nature 
seems  to  him  to  be  born  again.  So  general 
is  this  experience,  that  the  exception  noted  in 
the  recent  testimony  of  Dr.  E.  E.  Hale,  Jr., 
who  was  converted  at  a  meeting  lately  held 
in  Schenectady  by  Dr.  Dawson  of  London  is 
quite  remarkable.  Dr.  Hale  in  a  most  inter- 
esting account  of  his  great  transformation, 
says  that  he  became  conscious  of  a  curious 
change  in  himself  which  he  did  not  pretend 
to  explain.  "  Art,  literature,  scholarship,  the 
theatre,  the  various  things  that  had  filled  my 
mind,"  says  he,  "  lost  attraction."  "  Plans, 
ambitions  of  one  sort  or  another,  of  which  I 
had  a  number  in  hand,  no  longer  interested 
me."  "  The  attraction  of  Nature  held  on 
longer  than  the  rest.  I  remember  one  morn- 
ing looking  out  of  the  window  at  a  row  of 
elms,  that  I  had  for  years  looked  at  with  de- 
light while  dressing.  I  said  to  myself  I 
wonder  if  that  is  going  too,  and  before  I  had 
finished  the  sentence,  I  was  aware  that  love 
of  nature  had  gone  with  the  rest.     Doubtless 


CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE  175 

those  interests  will  return.  I  am  sure  I  hope 
they  will."  Let  us  join  him  in  this  hope. 
Surely  his  new-born  love  for  his  Lord  will 
cause  those  elms  to  whisper  to  him  a  sweeter 
story,  for  they  too  are  Christ's. 

The  Master's  love  of  Nature,  considered  as 
a  trait  worthy  of  our  hearty  imitation,  is 
especially  to  be  commended  to  our  own 
American  people.  With  us  life  is  intense, 
pressing,  keen.  We  seem  to  drink  in  with 
our  mother's  milk  a  restiess  spirit,  that  car- 
ries us  into  man's  responsibilities  before  we 
lay  aside  our  jackets. 

When  we  enter  the  office  or  the  shop,  the 
throttle  is  thrown  wide  open  and  we  plunge 
along  at  our  highest  speed  all  through  the 
working  hours.  The  spirit  is  contagious,  and 
becomes  an  American  characteristic  in  every 
department  of  life.  We  put  our  hotels  on 
wheels  and  call  them  Pullman  cars,  for  we 
cannot  do  as  our  fathers  did  and  stop  over 
at  night.  We  sleep  and  eat  while  rushing 
over  the  land  at  fifty  miles  the  hour.  The 
telegraph  does  our  talking,  for  we  cannot 
wait  for  the  mail.     This  rushing  habit  follows 


176  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

US  into  foreign  parts,  and  makes  us  known 
among  the  quiet  Europeans  and  still  slower 
Asiatics,  as  uncomfortable  wonders.  The 
greatest  things  in  the  world  cannot  be  done 
in  a  hurry,  and  these  things  we  miss. 

As  the  pendulum  released  from  one  ex- 
treme, swings  to  the  other,  so  our  people, 
in  their  recreations,  are  not  content  with  the 
simple,"  quiet  humour  of  older,  less  intensely- 
active  races.  The  London  Punch  seems  to 
us  like  a  piece  of  didactic  propriety.  We 
require  the  coarse  extravagance  of  the  comic 
supplement  of  a  Sunday  newspaper — Buster 
Brown,  Mr.  Hooligan  and  Gaston  and  Al- 
fonse  suit  us  better  than  the  cartoons  of 
Leech  or  Du  Maurier.  It  is  the  recoil  of 
human  nature  from  the  cruel  tension  of  our 
business  hours. 

To  these  tired  Americans,  we  would  sug- 
gest that  they  try,  instead  of  the  comic  pa- 
pers, the  tonic  power  of  a  love  of  Nature  and 
communion  with  her.  Our  Lord  found  sweet 
relief  among  the  hills  or  on  the  wave.  So 
may  His  followers.  The  world  He  made  has 
inexhaustible  variety.     There  is  no  mood  of 


CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE  1 77 

the  human  soul  which  may  not  find  sym- 
pathy in  some  part  of  the  universe. 

Are  we  meditative  ?  The  silent  forest,  the 
solitary  mountain  or  the  quiet  stars  seem  to 
share  our  seriousness  and  induce  serenity. 

Are  we  gay  ?  The  songs  of  birds,  or  the 
murmur  of  laughing  streams  form  a  musical 
accompaniment  to  our  gladness.  Are  we 
craving  action  or  longing  for  a  struggle? 
An  hour  with  the  oars,  spent  in  conquering 
the  waves  and  facing  the  salt  air,  will  give 
new  life  to  our  bodies  and  new  strength  to 
our  hearts. 

Are  we  depressed  by  the  ingratitude  of 
men  ?  A  brief  time  spent  daily  with  the  hoe 
in  our  garden,  will  teach  us  how  grateful  are 
our  humble  friends,  the  plants,  that  reward 
our  attention  with  a  return  it  may  be  of  a 
hundredfold ;  or  if  we  like  it  better,  we  may 
ramble  with  the  faithful  dog,  who  will  show 
us  that  a  lowly  brute  may  feel  an  attachment 
in  which  there  is  no  insincerity  and  no  in- 
constancy. 

The  Master  has  many  higher  ways  of 
meeting  His  people — in  prayer  and  song, — in 


178  CHRIST'S  LOVE  OF  NATURE 

meditation — in  closet  and  church,  but  He 
may  be  met  too,  as  He  meant  us  to  meet 
Him,  in  His  works,  if  we  only  look  for  Him. 
And  so,  in  words  familiar  from  childhood, 
yet  always  fresh  and  beautiful, 

*<  Our  lives,  exempt  from  public  haunt 
May  find  tongues  in  the  trees,  books  in  the  running 

brooks 
Sermons  in  stones  and ' — Christ — in  everything." 

»  «  Why  callest  thou  Me  good  ?  " 


LECTURE  V 

CHRIST  THE  MODEL  FOR  THE 
TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE 


LECTURE  V 

CHRIST  THE   MODEL  FOR  THE 
TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE 

THE  knowledge  of  the  physical  world 
is  largely  acquired,  not  by  personal 
research  but  from  the  testimony  of 
others.  Science,  for  even  the  most  learned, 
is  mainly  "the  knowledge  of  many  men, 
orderly  and  methodically  digested  and  ar- 
ranged, so  as  to  be  attainable  by  one."  ^  Per- 
sonal research  in  physics  is  confined  for  each 
student  to  a  limited  portion  of  Nature.  As 
the  years  go  on,  this  possible  field  for  any 
individual  is  getting  smaller  and  smaller. 
Philosophers  once  could  survey  the  universe: 
to-day  they  find  too  vast  a  field  in  a  single 
molecule.  The  atom  has  become  a  universe. 
For  our  knowledge  of  Nature,  except  a  mi- 
nute portion,  even  the  student  of  science 
must  rely  exclusively  on  the  accumulated  re- 

»  Sir  J.  F.  W.  HerscheL 
i8x 


l82  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

suits  of  the  researches  of  others,  conveyed  to 
him  by  such  interpreters  as  he  beHeves  to  be 
competent  and  true.  Laboratory  cannot  re- 
place the  lecture-room,  any  more  than  the 
lecture-room  can  replace  the  laboratory. 
Each  is  indispensable  and  complementary. 
Testimony  must  not  be  disparaged  as  a 
means  of  knowledge,  for  the  larger  part  of 
what  one  knows  has  always,  and  will  always 
be  derived  from  it.  He  who  takes  nothing 
on  the  witness  of  others,  and  demands  per- 
sonal immediate  knowledge  of  all  he  accepts, 
will  have  a  short  creed,  and  be  but  little 
better  than  an  ignoramus.  The  accumulated 
experience  of  our  race,  preserved,  arranged, 
and  conveyed  to  us  in  books  and  discourse — 
in  library  and  lecture-room — is  man's  price- 
less heritage.  The  function  of  the  teacher  in 
university,  college  or  school  is  to  be  this  in- 
terpreter between  the  past  and  present.  He 
may  seek  to  increase  knowledge  and  ought 
to  do  so,  but  his  greater  duty  is  to  diffuse  it. 
It  is  for  him  to  acquaint  himself  with  the 
augmenting  stores  of  discovery,  to  coordi- 
nate them,  to  convey  them  in  proper  order 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE        1 83 

to  the  pupil  and  to  train  him  to  make  use  of 
them.  The  teacher  has  always  been  a  re- 
spectable member  of  society.  If  his  profes- 
sion has  not  been  as  highly  honoured  as  it 
deserves  to  be,  perhaps  it  is  often  because 
the  teacher  himself  has  not  estimated  it  at 
its  real  value.  He  belongs  to  a  noble  line. 
Great  teachers  have  been  great  figures  in 
history.  They  have  left  more  enduring 
marks  upon  our  civilization  than  kings,  or 
marshals,  or  ministers. 

The  teacher,  I  venture  to  think,  may  learn 
useful  lessons  in  the  practice  of  his  important 
calling,  from  the  life  of  Christ.  He  was,  of 
choice,  a  teacher.  He  might  have  come  to 
earth  as  a  philosopher,  or  a  prince,  or  a  great 
soldier.  He  chose  to  come  as  a  teacher  and 
so  forever  lifted  that  calling  to  primacy  among 
all  professions. 

He  came  not  merely  as  a  teacher,  but  as  a 
college  teacher.  He  founded  a  college.  The 
civil  law  had  it,  that  it  took  three  to  make  a 
college.  A  master  and  two  pupils  were 
enough.  In  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of  the 
Advent,  there  were  colleges  with  famous  mas- 


184  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

ters.  The  names  and  something  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Hillel  and  Shammai  and  Gamaliel  have 
come  down  to  us.  The  college  was  not  so 
large  as  to  require  more  than  one  master. 
He  made  the  entire  faculty  and  taught  all 
the  branches  offered.  This  had  been  the 
style  in  Athens  for  centuries.  Socrates,  Plato 
and  Aristotle  had  been  heads  of  such  schools. 
The  head  master  taught  his  scholars  in  an 
apartment,  or  walking  in  a  portico,  or  in  the 
shade  of  a  leafy  grove.  They  appear  to  have 
had  access  to  him,  not  only  at  stated  hours, 
but  often  as  companions  for  a  large  part  of 
the  day,  asking  him  questions,  and  answering 
them. 

When  He,  whom  we  worship  as  omniscient 
became  a  teacher,  we  may  well  study  His 
methods,  in  the  communication  of  knowledge 
and  the  training  of  His  pupils.  Surely  the 
humble  teacher  of  human  science  may  hope 
to  find  some  valuable  light  for  his  guidance 
in  a  secular  profession  from  the  life  of  the 
g^eat  Teacher. 

Should  we  find  the  methods  used  by  Christ 
to  be  often  those  to  which,  in  the  long  cen- 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE        1 85 

turies  since  His  time,  teachers  having  no  ref- 
erence to  Him,  have  been  slowly  led  by  pain- 
ful experience  after  many  mistakes  and  fre- 
quent retirement  from  disappointing  experi- 
ment,— it  will  only  confirm  our  faith  in  Him 
as  the  source  of  light  and  truth.  It  will  make 
teaching-science  also  Christo-centric. 

LET  us  REVERENTLY  STUDY  THE  MASTER'S 
COLLEGE  METHODS 

We  are  first  struck  with  the  fact  that  Christ 
chose  His  more  intimate  pupils,  not  they 
Him.  At  the  close  of  the  course.  He  re- 
minded them  of  this.  They  had  before  en- 
trance to  pass  under  His  scrutiny.  These 
picked  learners  lived  with  their  Master, 
journeyed  with  Him,  ate  with  Him,  listened 
to  Him  in  the  walk,  and  at  the  resting  place, 
and  held  His  words  in  tenacious  memories, 
more  durably  than  if  they  had  been  cut  in 
stone  or  metal.  They  saw  His  mighty  works 
which  gave  new  meaning  and  force  to  His 
words.  The  twelve  formed  His  inner  circle. 
They  were  to  be  His  heralds  to  all  the  world. 
Beside  these,  there  was  a  number  much 
greater  who  were  also  disciples,  but  probably 


l86  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

not  constant  attendants.  They  gathered 
about  Him  when  they  could.  To  them  He 
spoke,  too,  and  showed  His  power,  and  used 
them  as  His  messengers  to  the  region  near  by. 

The  modem  professor,  with  his  seminarium 
of  selected  students,  and  his  large  class  of 
beginners  who  are  admitted  to  the  elements, 
but  not  to  the  penetralia  of  the  subject,  is 
doing  in  the  twentieth  century  what  the  Mas- 
ter did  in  the  first. 

Christ's  method  of  teaching  is  most  in- 
structive. It  was,  of  necessity,  oral,  and  not 
text-book,  teaching.  We  may  well  believe 
that  formal  discourses  at  great  length  were 
few.  The  remark  dropped  on  a  journey,  the 
brief  answers  to  questions,  the  interviews  in 
their  presence  with  other  inquirers  or  object- 
ors, together  with  the  wealth  of  meaning  em- 
bodied in  His  works  of  mercy, — all  together 
constituted  a  priceless  curriculum.  A  few  of 
His  extended  discourses  are  reported  at  length. 
What  we  may  call  the  introductory  and  vale- 
dictory lectures  are  given  in  full ;  they  throw 
wonderful  light  on  our  study  of  the  great 
Teacher. 


FOR   THE  TEACHER   OF  SCIENCE        1 87 

Shortly  after  the  choice  of  the  twelve,  what 
we  would  at  this  day  call  their  matriculation, 
we  are  told  that  Jesus,  seeing  the  multitude, 
withdrew  to  a  mountain,  whither  His  disci- 
ples followed  Him.  Certainly  the  twelve  were 
there,  and  finally,  doubtless  many  others — 
but  His  evident  wish  was  to  speak  to  His 
disciples.  Here  He  delivered  what  may  be 
regarded  as  the  introductory  lecture  of  His 
course.  It  has  ever  been  esteemed  as  a  most 
precious  deliverance.  Many  pious  people 
have  been  disturbed  at  not  finding  in  this 
fully  reported  discourse  a  complete  exposition 
of  the  Christian  Scheme.  It  contains  no 
gospel  of  Sacrifice  or  Substitution,  no  call  to 
repentance,  no  emphasis  of  faith,  no  assertion 
of  His  Deity„  The  beautiful  form  of  prayer 
it  sets  does  not  ask  forgiveness  in  the  Sa- 
viour's name.  Can  that  be  a  model  sermon 
that  makes  no  mention  of  the  Cross  ? 

Such  difficulties  disappear  if  we  are  entitled 
to  regard  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  the 
opening  lecture  of  a  course.  In  such  a  dis- 
course we  do  not  look  for  and  ought  not  to 
find  a  summary  of  the  course.     Such  would 


l88  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

be  unintelligible.  We  may  look  for  a  brush- 
ing away  of  impeding  prejudices,  a  clearing 
off  of  obstacles  to  entrance  on  the  new  way, 
and  a  glimpse  at  some  old  things  in  the  new 
light. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  begins  with 
some  startling  paradoxes  calculated  to  arrest 
the  attention  and  stir  the  expectation  of  the 
young  pupils.  They  had  spent  their  boy- 
hood in  what  the  Jews  regarded  as  the  out- 
skirts of  civilization.  Galilee  was  to  Judea 
what  the  Smoky  Mountains  are  to  Knox- 
ville.  Yet  these  hill-people  had  heard  of  the 
great  Emperor  at  Rome,  of  his  power  and 
wealth,  and  had  seen  something  of  the  mag- 
nificence of  his  vassal,  Herod  Antipas,  at 
Tiberias,  near  by.  They  had  at  times  gone 
up  to  the  g^eat  feast  at  Jerusalem,  had  looked 
upon  the  splendid  temple,  its  gorgeous  priests 
and  solemn  ritual,  and  had  gone  back  to  their 
humble  homes  and  weary  lives.  To  them 
happy  and  enviable  were  the  rich  and  proud. 
Happy  were  those  who  rejoiced;  who  were 
richly  fed  and  clothed;  who  hungered  only 
after  more   wealth   and   power;    who   were 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE        1 89 

haughty  towards  inferiors,  and  who  delighted 
in  war;  whom  poets  sang  of  and  all  men 
praised. 

Nay  rather,  began  their  teacher,  happy 
are  the  humble,  the  meek,  the  pure,  the 
merciful,  the  despised  and  persecuted.  Such 
are  the  salt  of  the  earth  and  the  light  of  the 
world. 

What  a  tumult  must  these  words  have 
caused  in  such  hearts  !  They  stir  us  after 
nineteen  centuries  of  progress.  What  an  up- 
setting of  cherished  ideals — and  sweeping 
away  of  prepossessions  I  Christ  has  here 
given,  if  I  mistake  not,  a  valuable  hint  to 
the  teachers  of  to-day.  Paradox  is  inevit- 
able when  wrong  notions  are  to  be  replaced 
by  right  ones.  Surprise  and  wonder  are  the 
necessary  concomitants  and  badges  of  igno- 
rance. Nil  admirari  is  only  possible  to  om- 
niscience. To  awaken  wonder  is  contempt- 
ible when  it  is  done  to  mystify  or  mislead, 
and  only  then.  'Tis  a  natural  prelude  to 
the  conveyance  of  truth  and  in  this  use  it  is 
not  only  admissible  but  commendable.  Our 
pupils    must    be    aroused   from  intellectual 


IQO  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

slumber,   and    paradox    is   a  shake  of  the 
shoulder  to  them. 

After  this  unique  introduction  the  disciples 
were  left  in  the  state  of  men  who,  where 
they  thought  the  way  plain,  have  unexpect- 
edly tripped  over  an  obstacle.  They  were 
humbled,  but  intellectually  wide  awake. 
Their  teacher,  having  their  undivided  at- 
tention, proceeds  to  disabuse  them  of  the 
idea  that  these  opening  sentences  may  have 
suggested  to  them.  He  is  no  destructive  in- 
novator. He  exalts  the  law  and  the  prophets 
whom  they  have  been  taught  to  revere  from 
earliest  childhood.  He  is  come  to  fulfill  not 
to  destroy — ^to  complete  not  to  lessen.  The 
law  is  eternal.  Its  human  excrescences  are 
temporal.  It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  the 
attitude  of  the  Jewish  mind  of  that  day 
towards  their  law.  Their  religious  leaders 
seem  to  have  largely  abandoned  all  reference 
to  it  as  a  rule  for  the  inner  life.  Sin  was 
altogether  in  the  external,  visible  act.  So 
was  righteousness.  The  law  had  no  eye  for 
motive.  The  commandment  to  do  no  work 
on  the  Sabbath  could  not  be  violated  by  any 


FOR  THE  TEACHER   OF  SCIENCE        191 

amount  of  thought  about  business,  but  it 
would  be  broken  by  having  one  nail  more  in 
one  shoe  than  in  the  other.  The  teaching  of 
the  synagogue  doubtless  like  that  of  the 
scribes,  was  filled  with  such  petty  and  ab- 
surd trivialities,  and  under  such  tuition  these 
young  fishermen  had  grown  up.  To  them 
comes  now  by  the  word  of  Christ  a  revela- 
tion of  the  spirituality  of  the  law=  It  was  a 
voice  from  heaven  at  whose  divine  accent 
these  incrustations  of  human  ingenuity  fell 
away,  disclosing  the  perfect  beauty  they  had 
hidden.  The  key-note  of  this  memorable  dis- 
course seems  to  be  the  infinite  worth  of  the 
spiritual  put  against  the  vanity  and  transi- 
toriness  of  the  visible.  Ritual  is  not  worship. 
It  may  help  it,  but  at  best  it  is  only  the  body 
whose  soul  is  the  real  service.  Such  a  foun- 
dation truth  deserved  such  a  place  of  honour 
in  the  gospels.  Human  nature  requires  to 
be  held  to  it  by  iteration  and  reiteration 
under  divine  influence.  We  swing  away  from 
it  so  easily  and  lapse  into  formalism  and  mere 
outside  cleanliness. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  many  strik- 


192  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

ing  features  beside,  which  are  of  value  to  the 
instructor.  The  simpHcity  of  the  language, 
preserved  so  admirably  in  our  chief  English 
version — a  simplicity  not  childish  but  child- 
like— the  clearness  of  a  deep  pool — is  a  model 
which  every  one  should  imitate,  though  few 
or  none  can  reach  it  Magniloquence  often 
hides  poverty  of  thought.  Simple  language 
is  the  badge  of  strength,  and  the  natural  garb 
of  truth.  The  Bible,  and  especially  the  gos- 
pels are  the  "  well  of  English  undefiled."  In 
its  style,  it  is  the  noblest  pattern  of  our  mother 
tongue  in  its  most  perfect  form. 

Note  too  the  Saviour's  use  of  common 
things  for  illustrations.  He  found  ample  ma- 
terial in  the  familiar  matters  of  daily  life.  A 
far-fetched,  novel  or  laboured  incident,  draws 
attention  to  itself  and  so  instead  of  setting  the 
theme  in  clearer  light,  darkens  and  obscures 
it.  Teachers  and  pupils  alike  dread  triteness. 
Like  the  Athenians,  they  demand  some  new 
thing.  Triteness  however  is  not  in  the  thing 
or  its  frequent  recurrence,  but  in  the  way  it  is 
used.  The  flowers  of  spring,  the  stars  of 
heaven  are  with  us  always.     Though  seen 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE        193 

again  and  again,  they  are  never  trite.  Our 
Master  here  gives  us  a  profound  lesson  for 
our  guidance  in  trying  to  teach  others.  Use 
familiar  things  by  preference  for  illustration, 
but  use  them  freshly.  They  all  have  mean- 
ings yet  undiscovered.  Let  us  seek  to  bring 
out  the  hidden  significance  of  common  things. 
Our  industry  or  penetration  is  exhaustible, 
not  their  richness. 

In  a  previous  connection  we  have  noted 
Christ's  constant  employment  of  the  events 
of  Nature  in  His  teaching.  His  inaugural 
lecture,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  is  full  of 
them.  The  light,  the  rain,  the  wind,  the  lily 
and  the  sunshine  are  cited  and  forever  iden- 
tified in  the  thought  of  after  ages  with  spirit- 
ual truth.  The  light  suggests  personal  influ- 
ence, the  lily  assures  of  the  Father's  care, 
while  the  rock  and  the  storm  typify  the  se- 
curity of  the  godly. 

What  we  may  call  the  college  course  of 
the  apostles  covered  according  to  the  com- 
mon understanding  about  three  years  ;  rather 
less,  perhaps,  than  more.  Of  the  Master's 
instruction  there  is  preserved  no  systematic 


194  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

account,  if  indeed  there  was  a  system  as  we 
understand  the  term.  His  method,  as  we 
have  before  indicated,  was  education  by  con- 
stant personal  intercourse,  continuous  in  in- 
fluence, yet  as  to  speech  fragmentary.  There 
were  searching  questions  on  what  had  been 
taught;  the  putting  of  instructive  cases  for 
their  meditation ;  and,  at  times  the  puzzling 
of  them  with  seeming  contradiction  between 
prophecy  and  fact.  These  things  He  often  did 
in  their  presence  with  His  objectors  and  foes. 
He  seemed  fond  of  the  Socratic  method  of 
making  the  learner  teach  himself.  Doubtless 
what  He  did  with  others,  He  did  also  with  His 
immediate  disciples.  Christ's  example  puts 
an  emphasis  upon  the  necessity  of  personal 
individual  work  with  the  student  if  we  would 
accomplish  the  best  result.  The  great  as- 
sembly with  its  hundreds  of  eager  listeners, 
and  its  speaker,  stirred  to  his  highest  effort 
by  the  stimulus  of  the  subject  and  the  hour, 
has  its  place  in  the  university.  Large  classes, 
in  some  subjects  and  some  aspects  of  every 
subject,  are  useful  and  even  indispensable. 
But  they  are  not  best  for  training.     Like  the 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE         195 

rapid  dash  of  an  express  train  through  a  lovely 
country,  they  reveal  the  great  features  of  the 
landscape  in  their  large  outlines  and  compo- 
sition, but  to  know  that  country  will  require 
also  the  pick  and  the  spade,  the  level  and  the 
tape.  Neither  can  do  the  work  of  the  other. 
It  is  curious  to  watch  the  oscillation  in  our 
educational  centres  between  the  extremes  of 
class-teaching  solely  and  of  individual  teach- 
ing solely.  The  happy  mean  is  the  true 
and  wise  way,  and  that  was  our  Saviour's 
way.  In  the  English  universities,  in  former 
days,  lectures  to  great  classes  held  an  insig- 
nificant place.  In  our  own  land  they  once 
held  almost  exclusive  place. 

Meanwhile  we  suggest  that  it  would  much 
add  to  the  value  of  such  important  changes,  if 
their  success  or  failure  could  be  promptly 
communicated  to  sister  institutions  for  their 
guidance.  We  seek  the  same  great  ends, 
through  methods  of  various  merit. 

We  note  also  that  Christ  taught  His  pupils 
how  to  do  things  by  letting  them  see  Him  do 
those  very  things.  His  mighty  works  were 
done  in  their  presence.     These  works  relieved 


196  CHRIST  THE   MODEL 

suffering  and  manifested  His  divinity,  but 
had  besides  an  educational  value.  We  who 
never  saw  a  miracle  cannot  perhaps  realize 
the  tremendous  impression  which  such  an 
act  must  have  made  on  the  beholders. 
Apart  from  awe  and  reverence,  in  presence 
of  power,  was  the  lesson  of  the  spiritual 
nature  of  Christ's  lordship,  when,  often  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  went  with  the  healing  of 
the  body. 

But  the  Master  did  not  limit  His  teaching 
to  words,  or  to  acts  of  His  own.  First  among 
great  instructors.  He  gave  emphasis  to  what 
we  call  now  laboratory  work,  that  is  to  put- 
ting the  pupil  to  practical  use  of  his  knowl- 
edge and  to  personal  testing  of  asserted 
truth.  Very  soon  in  His  ministry  He  sent 
them  out  into  the  villages  and  country  sides 
of  Galilee,  to  preach  and  to  heal — to  do,  in 
fact,  what  they  had  seen  Him  do.  He  gave 
them  minute  directions  as  to  their  conduct 
both  among  friends  and  enemies.  We  may 
well  imagine  the  excitement  made  in  a  Jewish 
village  by  the  coming  of  a  disciple  of  the 
Great  Prophet  of  whom  they  had  heard  so 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE        197 

much.  He  would  surely  appear  in  their 
synagogue  and  then  in  their  streets  and 
houses,  telling  them  the  good  news,  healing 
their  sick,  and  casting  out  demons  from 
notorious  subjects.  The  missionaries  re- 
turned to  the  Master  exulting  in  their  newly- 
found  powers.  Here  is  a  profoundly  phil- 
osophic feature  of  pedagogy,  lying  before 
our  eyes  for  centuries,  but  without  serious 
recognition.  The  necessity  in  an  all-round 
system  of  education  that  the  pupil  should 
make  his  knowledge  an  intimate  personal 
possession,  which  he  cannot  fully  do  without 
coming  into  such  close  contact  with  truth 
as  practice  involves,  has  been  slow  of  ad- 
mission. The  antiquated  systems  made  the 
student  merely  an  absorber.  The  new  sys- 
tem makes  him  in  a  sense,  a  rediscoverer. 
Once  the  teacher  and  text-book  were  every- 
thing. Now  the  laboratory  is  also  essential. 
But,  as  in  all  reforms,  the  pendulum  preserves 
its  centre  only  by  swinging  to  extremes. 
When  instructors  waked  up  to  a  conscious- 
ness of  this  serious  defect  in  their  arrange- 
ment, there  were  not  wanting  enthusiastic 


198  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

men  who  demanded  nothing  but  laboratories 
in  the  educational  apparatus.  They  utterly- 
deprecated  lectures  and  book  work  as  mere 
telling  about  things  imperfectly,  when  in  the 
laboratory  the  things  themselves  were  at 
hand,  waiting  for  recognition.  Happily  the 
good  sense  of  trustees  and  boards  resisted 
the  pressure.  They  sought  to  adjust  ration- 
ally the  balance  between  oral  teaching  and 
practice.  In  fact,  they  have  settled  upon  the 
plan  shown  near  twenty  centuries  ago  by  our 
Lord,  of  combining  judiciously  the  lecture- 
room  and  laboratory — the  map  and  the 
journey — the  model  and  the  copy. 

In  our  reverent  study  of  even  the  minutiae 
in  the  practice  of  the  greatest  teacher  of  the 
world,  we  mark  that  He  sent  out  no  one 
alone.  His  missioners  went  in  pairs.  He, 
Himself,  needed  no  coadjutor,  but  He  knew 
that  each  young  disciple  would  be  the  better 
for  a  companion.  In  wisdom,  in  courage 
and  strength,  two  are  better  than  one.  The 
English  Methodists  find  it  so  and  station  their 
ministers  in  pairs.  Part  of  the  success  of  the 
false  system   of    the   Latter   Day  Saints   is 


FOR   THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE         I99 

doubtless  due  to  their  sending  ministers  to 
foreign  or  hostile  places  always  two  and  two. 
Even  in  physical  laboratories  it  is  found  often 
to  be  wise  to  have  the  students  work  in  pairs. 

Note  also  another  delicate  point,  full,  is  it 
not?  of  suggestion  and  inspiration  to  the 
plodding  teacher — the  frequent  repetition  by 
the  Master  of  statements  or  illustrations. 
This  seems  to  have  given  to  some  harmonists 
a  world  of  trouble.  Assuming  that  there  was 
no  such  repetition  and  that  the  same  sentences 
in  the  different  gospels  must  refer  to  the  same 
occasion,  great  pains  have  been  taken  by  some 
to  harmonize  the  narratives  even  by  violent 
wrenchings  of  the  text. 

Is  it  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  wise  teacher 
to  repeat  his  phrases  in  dealing  with  imma- 
ture minds  ?  Nay,  does  not  experience  con- 
vince us  that  it  is  both  wise  and  necessary  ? 
Learning  is  a  slow  painful  process,  advancing 
not  steadily  but  like  walking  by  constant  fall 
and  recovery.  It  is  by  incessant  repetition, 
as  the  wearing  of  marble  by  long  dropping 
of  water,  that  lasting  impressions  are  made 
on  the  young  mind.     Those  studies  in  the 


200  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

curriculum  in  which  such  repetition  is  most 
frequent  and  natural  are  just  those  which  the 
verdict  of  ages  has  declared  to  be  the  best 
instruments  of  culture.  I  venture  to  think 
that  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  study 
of  the  ancient  classics  as  an  educational 
gymnastic  has  held  so  high  a  place  in  the 
schools  for  thousands  of  years.  The  re- 
lations of  words  in  discourse  are  phenomena 
which  in  their  elementary  facts  are  simple,  of 
easy  analysis  and  within  the  grasp  of  the 
beginner,  while  in  their  more  delicate  features 
they  require  and  reward  the  highest  ability  of 
the  scholar. 

The  construing  and  parsing  of  page  after 
page  from  day  to  day  is  ever  bringing  to  view 
the  same  principles  in  a  variety  of  relations, 
so  that  the  rules  of  grammar  are  at  last  graven 
ineffaceably  on  the  memory.  It  is  inductive 
science,  too,  which  the  pupil  is  practicing,  for 
he  is  taught  that  the  rule  flows  from  the  prac- 
tice, not  the  practice  from  the  rule.  In  teach- 
ing the  physical  sciences  such  repetition  is 
not  so  common,  while  the  phenomena  are  not 
so  easily  apprehended  by  an  immature  mind, 


FOR  THE  TEACHER   OF  SCIENCE         20I 

for  taken  singly  they  are  such  as  seem  to 
disprove  our  laws.  It  is  only  when  the  tol- 
erably mature  student  has  somewhat  mas- 
tered the  science  of  errors,  that  he  is  able  to 
rest  in  truth  derived  from  inexact  results. 
Hence  it  seems  to  some  that  such  studies  are 
not  the  best  for  beginners. 

Genuine  classical  study,  as  a  branch  of  in- 
ductive science,  instead  of  being  unfriendly 
as  a  preparation  for  the  study  of  the  natural 
sciences,  should  be  an  admirable  introduction 
to  it.  In  the  old  curriculum,  the  judicious 
mingling  of  classical  and  mathematical  study 
formed  a  happy  introduction  to  the  study  of 
nature,  opening  up  a  new  and  beautiful  field 
in  which  the  methods  were  familiar  while 
their  application  was  novel. 

The  Master  was  not  always  with  the  disci- 
ples. There  were  frequent  solemn  hours 
when  He  withdrew  to  the  desert  or  the  soli- 
tude of  the  mountain  top,  some  lonely  spot 
where  no  one  intruded.  Sometimes  a  whole 
night  passed  before  He  sought  again  the  com- 
pany of  His  followers.  The  teacher  must 
have  much  time  alone.     Without  those  hours 


202  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

of  meditation  and  separation  from  the  press- 
ing throng  of  active  duties,  his  ministry  will 
be  jejune  indeed.  The  hidden  life  supplies 
the  public  life.  The  sources  of  our  great  riv- 
ers are  not  in  their  visible  fountain-heads,  but 
in  the  invisible  air  in  which  those  waters  are 
dissolved,  which  presently  will  fill  their  chan- 
nels. We  have  Christ's  great  authority  for 
the  teacher's  demanding  large  time  apart 
from  lessons  and  lectures, — time  for  recrea- 
tion in  its  highest  sense — ^the  revival  of  his 
powers — the  renewal  of  his  zeal — the  nourish- 
ment of  his  mind.  Some  teachers  find  in 
society  or  in  charge  of  work  a  great  relief. 
They  unbend  the  bow,  they  say,  and  thus 
maintain  its  elasticity.  The  recreation  I 
speak  of  is  something  different  from  mere 
amusement.  It  is  communion  with  a  higher 
world.  To  do  that  best  the  man  must  be 
alone.  Solitude,  not  society,  best  promotes 
this  flow  of  new  energy  into  his  soul.  From 
such  hours  he  comes  forth  to  his  followers 
with  his  face  shining  with  a  new  light 

On  the  other  hand,  human  nature  is  so  com- 
plex that  our  needs  are  wonderfully  varied. 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE         203 

The  Master  often  retired  so  as  to  be  alone. 
But  again,  He  sometimes  left  the  familiar,  well- 
trodden  paths  of  Galilee,  and  with  His  chosen 
followers  resorted  to  the  capital  city,  with  the 
throngs  of  worshippers  from  all  parts  of  the 
earth,  converging  to  the  great  feasts.  There 
in  the  great  assemblies,  gathered  in  the  courts 
of  the  splendid  Temple  and  overflowing  into 
the  streets  and  over  the  surrounding  hills, 
they  caught  the  inspiration  and  uplift  which 
come  from  sympathy  and  contact  with  our 
fellow  men. 

The  teacher's  life,  if  spent  entirely  with  his 
pupils,  apart  from  the  great  world,  may  be 
rich  with  the  fruits  of  meditation  and  study, 
but  is  in  danger  of  narrowness  and  self-centre- 
ing. Now  and  then,  he  should  abandon  soli- 
tude, and  seek  to  touch  the  great  throbbing 
world  outside.  Man  was  made  for  society 
and  such  occasional  approaches  enlarge  the 
teacher's  views,  brush  away  the  cobwebs  of 
provincialism  and  freshen  his  sympathies. 
His  pupils  will  notice  the  added  spirit  and 
life  of  his  teaching,  and  catch  new  interest 
themselves. 


204  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

There  is  another  fact  in  Christ's  life,  to 
which  the  attention  of  American  teachers  may 
profitably  be  drawn.  "  He  began  to  be  about 
thirty  years  of  age,"  says  St.  Luke,  when  He 
commenced  to  teach.  The  long  period  of 
preparation,  in  the  little  village  hidden  away 
among  the  hills  of  Galilee,  covered  childhood, 
youth,  and  apprenticeship  in  the  carpenter's 
shop — thirty  years  of  training  for  a  service  of 
three. 

We  think  of  those  seasons  of  waiting  at 
school  or  synagogue  or  workman's  bench, 
and  cannot  help  wondering  that  Divine  wis- 
dom and  power  should  seemingly  have  been 
kept  in  obscurity  so  long.  To  our  poor  dark- 
ened apprehension  it  is  so  mysterious  that 
the  transcendent  gifts  for  which  the  earth  was 
waiting  and  groaning  should  be  delayed  or 
postponed.  Of  course  it  is  all  due  to  our  ig- 
norance. Doubtless  could  we  know  all,  we 
would  see  that  great  blessings  to  our  race 
were  secured  by  those  silent  years  of  tutelage. 
One  blessing  at  least  we  may  thankfully  re- 
ceive. Our  race  and  especially  our  age  needs 
the  great  lesson  that  preparation  for  duty, 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE        205 

ample  and  minute,  had  best  be  made  before 
undertaking  that  duty ;  and  that  dehberate 
careful  training  is  no  waste  of  time.  Better 
thirty  years  of  drill  and  three  years  of  service, 
than  three  years  of  training  and  thirty  years 
of  imperfect  work.  The  one  changes  the 
world,  the  other  does  not  often  outlast  the 
worker. 

By  no  nation  on  earth  is  a  warning  of  this 
sort  more  sorely  needed  than  by  our  own 
American  people.  The  character  of  our  en- 
vironment ;  the  freedom  of  our  institutions ; 
the  vast  things  that  may  be  done  and  that 
press  on  our  attention  before  we  are  grown  ; 
the  possibilities  of  wealth  and  honour,  nay 
the  very  tension  of  our  eager,  bright  atmos- 
phere producing  a  singular  nervousness  and 
excitability  ;  all  conspire  to  push  our  young 
people  into  the  business  of  life  before  they 
are  mature. 

In  no  profession  is  this  more  frequent  than 
in  the  responsible  one  of  teaching — whether 
in  the  pulpit  or  the  recitation-room.  Here 
the  example  of  the  great  Teacher  supplies  us 
with  a  warning  and  a  pattern.     Would  we 


206  CHRIST  THE   MODEL 

be  successful  in  the  high  calling?  Let  us 
make  sure  of  it  by  patient,  thorough  prepara- 
tion. Let  our  American  public  be  impressed 
with  the  need  of  this,  and  cease  to  tempt 
bright  but  immature  young  candidates  to 
premature  exertion.  This  stimulus  some- 
times kills.  Let  our  faculties,  boards  and 
friends  of  colleges  make  it  possible  for  Amer- 
ican youth  to  spend  double  the  present  period 
at  school,  and  then  let  them  make  it  neces- 
sary. 

Teaching  from  the  sacred  desk  is  held  in 
highest  honour  in  our  land.  Secular  teach- 
ing, too,  should  be  a  profession  as  honour- 
able, as  exacting  and  as  well  paid,  as  that  of 
law  or  medicine.  To  that  end,  it  should  be 
life-work — not  a  makeshift  leading  to  some- 
thing regarded  as  more  worthy.  The  teacher 
is  more  often  the  butt  of  the  village  wit  than 
the  doctor  or  the  lawyer,  because  his  calling 
stands  lower  in  public  esteem  than  theirs. 
It  stands  lower,  because  teachers  themselves 
often  have  a  low  estimate  of  it.  This  will 
never  be  changed,  while  it  is  regarded  as  a 
profession,  requiring  little  or  no  preparation, 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE        207 

and  which  almost  any  person  may  fill.  Our 
divine  Master  honoured  the  office  by  choos- 
ing it  for  Himself,  and  in  His  short,  active 
life  gave  us  a  model  in  every  aspect  of  it 
which  we  would  do  well  to  follow. 

With  two  exceptions,  Christ's  discourses 
are  reported  by  the  evangelists  only  par- 
tially. There  are  two,  however,  which  are 
given  at  greater  length.  One  of  them  was 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which  we  have 
ventured  to  call  Christ's  introductory  lecture 
to  His  college  course.  The  other  may  be 
called  His  valedictory,  the  closing  lecture 
of  His  course.  They  are  given  by  differ- 
ent evangelists.  Plain,  businesslike,  Judaic 
Matthew  was  chosen  to  tell  us  of  the 
former.  It  was  doubtless  a  labour  of  love 
with  him  to  magnify  the  law  of  Moses 
and  exhibit  its  unsuspected  contents  to  his 
readers. 

But  when  the  last  words  were  to  be  said 
to  the  same  men,  enlarged  and  developed  by 
years  of  association  with  a  lofty  character, 
another  type  of  reporter  was  needed, — one 
of  warmer  feeling  and  finer  mould,  an  eagle, 


208  CHRIST   THE  MODEL 

not  a  man  or  ox  or  lion — a  poet,  not  a 
writer  of  prose.  Of  all  the  four  evangelists 
John  was  the  one  best  fitted  for  the  task  and 
John  was  selected.  The  inaugural  was  given 
on  a  mountain  apart,  away  from  the  multi- 
tudes, but  to  a  small  company  that  grew 
perhaps  into  a  crowd.  The  valedictory  was 
spoken  in  a  small  room  again  to  the  dis- 
ciples alone,  yet  in  the  midst  of  a  city 
crowded  always  but  then  overflowing  with 
visitors.  The  little  company  was  alone  with 
their  teacher  but  not  far  from  the  crowds  He 
came  to  save.  His  parting  accents  fell  upon 
their  ears  mingled  with  the  hum  of  voices, 
and  tread  of  feet,  of  the  outside  multitude, 
decreasing  at  that  hour,  but  not  yet  hushed 
to  silence. 

The  two  discourses,  the  first  and  the  last, 
are  strikingly  dissimilar.  In  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  their  Master  in  His  divine  offices, 
is  not  mentioned  at  all.  In  the  final  dis- 
course He  is  prominent.  In  the  one  the 
endearing  relation  between  His  pupils  and 
Himself  is  not  emphasized.  In  the  other  it 
forms  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  discourse. 


FOR  THE  TEACHER  OF  SCIENCE         209 

One  is  all  law,  the  other  all  gospel.  The 
fatherhood  of  God  is  in  both.  The  brother- 
hood of  Christ  is  only  in  the  latter.  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  not  named  in  the  first.  In  the 
last  He  is  conspicuous. 

The  Christian  teacher  of  science  may 
humbly  accept  the  lessons  here  suggested, 
as  to  the  natural  and  wise  conduct  of  his 
lectures.  At  the  outset  he  may  begin  with  a 
clear  awakening  statement  calling  his  pupils 
away  from  prejudice  and  giving  them  a 
glimpse  into  the  region  about  to  be  entered ; 
aiming  at  the  creation  of  interest  and  the 
removal  of  stumbling  blocks.  But  at  the 
end  comes  the  parting.  How  different  is  it 
then  after  years  of  personal  contact,  when 
the  expanded  minds  of  the  scholars,  informed 
and  disciplined,  have  qualified  them  to  begin 
independent  life  for  themselves  I  Surely 
then,  along  with  summaries  of  truth  already 
conveyed,  there  will  come  parting  words 
from  the  heart.  The  light  of  the  final  lecture 
will  not  be  the  less  for  the  warmth  of  the 
parting  friends. 

Great  Master,  thou  art  the  way  to  all  truth 


2IO  CHRIST  THE  MODEL 

in  heaven  and  earth,  and  through  the  truth, 
to  the  highest  Hfe !  That  life  is  only  com- 
plete, when  heaven  and  earth  both  contrib- 
ute to  its  richness. 


LECTURE  VI 
THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 


LECTURE  VI 
THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

THE  gospels  reveal  to  us  a  grand 
character  in  presence  of  which  their 
other  contents  fade  from  our  view, 
as  lesser  lights  always  do  before  a  brighter 
one.  When  we  contemplate  Him,  all  thoughts 
about  methods  of  teaching  are  forgotten  and 
we  are  engrossed  with  the  teacher  Himself. 

Other  biographies  give  us  often  a  principal 
figure  in  a  background  so  interesting  as  to 
divide  the  attention  of  the  reader.  In  a  life 
of  Napoleon,  we  may  see  more  of  France 
than  of  him.  Marshall's  life  of  Washington 
is  perhaps  most  valuable  as  a  history  of  the 
times  in  which  he  lived.  The  life  of  Christ 
is  a  canvas  in  which  the  background  is  un- 
seen, while  we  gaze  on  Him.  Every  detail 
contributes  to  the  prominence  of  the  central 
figure.  Some  human  biographies  have  ap- 
proximated to  this  and  are  famous  in  pro- 
213 


214   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

portion  as  they  do.  The  greatest  among 
them  is  doubtless  Boswell's  great  work.  In 
it,  well  nigh  every  paragraph  teaches  us 
something  of  Johnson.  But  after  all  there 
are  Burke,  Reynolds,  Goldsmith,  Garrick, 
Langton,  Beauclerc  and  a  long  list  of  distin- 
guished names  beside.  They  stand  around 
Johnson  on  the  same  level  and  while  revolv- 
ing about  him,  divide  our  attention  with  him. 
But  Christ  and  His  companions  are  not  on 
the  same  level.  In  our  first  study,  we  see 
**  no  man  but  Jesus  only."  Upon  a  second 
view,  we  may  discern  Christ's  comrades  at 
His  feet. 

Another  striking  difference  between  the 
gospels  and  other  biographies  is  this.  Great 
human  characters  require  a  lifetime  for  their 
complete  exhibition.  They  must  be  studied 
in  youth,  in  manhood  and  in  old  age.  The 
revelation  of  a  great  life  is  usually  slow. 
The  complex  demands  the  threescore  years 
and  ten  for  its  development.  The  richest 
part  of  such  a  life  is  its  old  age.  In  this 
alone  we  fully  see  the  harvest  sown  in  early 
life.    The  fire  and  passion  of  youth,  the  vigour 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF       215 

and  activity  of  manhood,  are  replaced  by  the 
higher  serenity  and  calm  wisdom  of  the  sage, 
in  which  we  discern  what  is  best  and  noblest 
in  the  man  himself.  Surely  a  human  biog- 
raphy is  unfinished,  if  it  stop  short  of  the 
afternoon  of  life.  Yet  Christ's  biography 
covers  less  than  three  years  of  His  life.  A 
few  glimpses  only  of  His  infancy  and  boyhood 
are  given.  Like  instantaneous  photographs, 
they  raise  questions  which  they  do  not  an- 
swer. Beside  these,  only  a  fourth  of  a  dec- 
ade of  His  manhood  is  revealed.  Then  the 
curtain  falls.  The  cross  has  suddenly  closed 
His  career  as  a  man.  For  Him,  there  is  no 
afternoon  or  sunset.  He  passes  behind  the 
veil  in  the  fullness  of  His  manly  strength. 
Children  may  draw  near  to  Him  who  was 
once  a  child.  The  youth  and  the  mature 
man  may  feel  encouraged  to  trust  in  Him 
who  knew,  by  personal  experience,  the  dan- 
gers and  needs  of  both.  But  the  aged  man 
must  seek  for  other  sources  of  hope.  Christ 
was  never  old.  Yet  no  one  has  ever  found 
His  portrait  incomplete.  In  some  strange 
way,  this  fragment  of  a  life,  disclosed  the 


2l6       THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

whole  man.  They  tell  us  that  the  smallest 
fragment  of  a  diamond,  has  in  perfection  all 
the  properties  of  the  gem.  For  its  complete 
description  in  angle,  lustre,  form  and  colour, 
we  need  only  the  tiniest  sparklet.  So  it 
seems  to  be  with  this  great  life. 

The  biographers  of  other  men  are  greatly 
helped  by  having — indeed,  for  any  serious 
work  find  it  indispensable  to  have — writings 
of  their  hero — his  own  letters,  or  journal,  or 
essays.  In  some  cases,  a  man's  correspond- 
ence with  little  besides,  makes  up  what  we 
call  his  life.  He  writes  his  own  biography 
unconsciously  in  his  familiar  letters,  or  his 
more  serious  compositions.  So  true  is  this, 
that  in  writing  the  life  of  another,  he 
may  also  write  his  own.  Boswell's  John- 
son is  Boswell's  Boswell.  The  Evangelists 
give  us  no  line  written  by  Christ.  If  He  ever 
wrote  a  line,  we  have  no  record  of  it.  Once, 
'tis  said  that,  stooping  down,  He  traced  with 
His  finger  in  the  dust  on  the  temple  floor — 
— words  we  would  give  our  libraries  to  know, 
but  which  the  next  breeze  or  the  next  foot- 
print obliterated.     His  words  were  from  day 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF       217 

to  day  committed  to  the  most  transient  thing 
in  the  world,  the  idle  air,  to  be  lost  apparently 
when  their  echoes  were  gone.  They  were 
not  lost,  but  have  been  ringing  round  the 
world  ever  since.  He  committed  them  to 
the  minds  of  loving  pupils,  and  loving  mem- 
ory is  a  record  more  durable  than  engravings 
on  marble  or  brass.  Horace  in  a  memorable 
ode  boasted  that  by  his  writing  he  had  made 
for  himself  a  monument  loftier  than  the  pyra- 
mids. Jesus  Christ,  without  writing,  made  a 
monument  which  will  outlast  the  stars.  This 
fragment  of  a  life,  reported  by  His  humble 
friends,  has  by  universal  consent,  taken  the 
highest  place  in  literature — a  place  unique 
and  solitary,  high  over  all  in  its  class.  Even 
His  enemies,  through  the  long  ages  since  He 
was  on  earth  have  virtually  said  with  Pilate, 
"  We  find  no  fault  in  this  man,"  and  with  the 
officers  of  the  temple,  *'  Never  man  spake  like 
this  man."  We  recall  the  familiar  story  of 
Charles  Lamb,  that  in  a  convivial  company 
the  question  was  asked  what  they  would  do 
if  certain  great  characters  of  history  were  to 
appear  among  them.     One  said,  "What  if 


2l8   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

Shakespeare  were  to  enter  ? "  "  Oh,  we 
should  all  get  upon  our  feet,"  said  Lamb. 
At  last  it  was  asked,  "  And  what  if  Christ 
should  appear?"  All  levity  faded  from 
gentle  Elia's  face,  and  after  a  pause  he 
quietly  exclaimed,  *'  Then  we  would  all  fall 
upon  our  knees."  That  is  the  attitude  which 
the  finest  spirits  of  the  earth  feel  like  taking 
in  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  no  one 
else  born  of  woman. 

What  amazes  us  in  this  is  that  the  char- 
acter of  Christ  is  not  the  one  which  poets, 
sages  and  historians  have  drawn  as  the  ideal 
of  humanity.  Homer's  hero  was  Achilles, 
active,  passionate,  inexorable,  fierce.  Con- 
fucius exalts  the  "  superior  man,"  dignified, 
just,  correct,  but  concerned  only  with  the 
visible  and  the  present.  Buddha  crowns  the 
man  imperturbable,  immovable,  unconcerned. 
Carlisle's  heroes  are  men  of  strength,  like 
Cromwell  or  Frederick  the  Great,  feared  by 
thousands,  loved  by  none.  Perhaps  the 
qualities  most  admired  by  man  are  seen  in 
that  romantic  hero  of  our  boyhood,  Richard 
Plantagenet,    fearless,    strong,   unselfish    in 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF       219 

some  things,  chivalrous,  hating  his  enemy, 
quick  in  revenge,  but  merciful  to  the  weak. 
This  great  figure  of  the  third  Crusade,  like 
the  other  leaders  of  the  Christian  hosts,  is  in 
marked  contrast  with  the  character  of  Him 
whose  sepulchre  they  devoted  life  and  fortune 
to  repossess.  Meekness  to  them  was  con- 
temptible ;  to  Him  it  was  blessing.  They, 
when  smitten,  would  smite  again.  He  would 
turn  the  other  cheek.  He  exalts  forgiveness. 
They  honour  revenge.  Kill  your  enemy,  said 
the  Crusaders.  Love  your  enemy,  said  Christ. 
Is  our  ideal  to-day,  much  higher  than  that  of 
the  Crusaders  ?  We  laugh  at  their  chivalry 
and  count  it  fantastic.  Yet  that  was  the  en- 
nobling feature  of  those  strange  expeditions. 

It  was  unselfish.  It  called  for  sacrifice. 
The  object  was  a  mistaken  one,  but  the  spirit 
was  noble.  Cervantes  meant  to  hold  chivalry 
up  to  ridicule  by  connecting  its  practice  with 
the  freaks  of  a  lunatic.  Yet  such  is  our 
homage  for  courage,  truth  and  loyalty  that 
our  laughter  at  the  absurdities  of  Don  Quixote 
is  lost  in  our  involuntary  respect  for  his 
bravery,   his    unselfishness,   his    respect  for 


220   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

woman,  his  abhorrence  of  oppression.  If  the 
great  writer  meant  to  make  the  knight  con- 
temptible, as  well  as  comical,  he  has  signally 
failed.  The  gaunt  horseman,  with  his  un- 
worldly life,  has  captured  our  esteem.  Far 
higher  is  it  to  take  a  drab  for  a  lady  than  to 
degrade  a  lady  into  a  drab.  Don  Quixote  is 
a  finer  gentleman  than  Charles  the  Second. 

May  I  say,  in  parenthesis,  that  to  some  of 
us  it  seems  that  society  in  our  own  land,  may 
well  cultivate  and  honour  what  is  best  in  chiv- 
alry. Our  critics  say,  we  seek  and  worship 
money.  The  pursuit  of  wealth  is  not  wrong, 
if  we  join  to  it  reverence  for  the  uncommer- 
cial, unselfish,  altruistic  qualities  in  human 
nature.  May  we  not  have  in  our  social  rela- 
tions, our  dealings  with  one  another,  those 
great  traits  we  are  showing  as  a  nation  in  our 
lifting  the  weak  and  poor,  and  in  reconciling 
the  bloody  wars  of  the  rich  and  strong  ?  As 
a  people  we  can  be  gentle,  though  great; 
peace-makers,  though  powerful ;  liberal, 
though  rich.  May  we  not  wisely  seek  to 
show  these  qualities  in  our  homes?  Our 
American  character  is  bound  to  be  a  complex 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF      221 

one,  and  in  this  fact  doubtless  stands  our  hope 
of  its  final  excellence.  Upon  our  Anglo  Saxon 
stock  have  been  grafted  branches  from  all 
the  countries  of  Europe.  To  the  push  and 
energy,  the  common  sense  and  common  law 
of  the  Briton,  have  been  added  the  dash  of 
the  Frenchman,  the  patience  of  the  German, 
the  ardour  of  the  Italian  and  the  reverence  of 
the  Swede.  These  streams  coming  to  us  from 
widely  different  sources,  do  not  remain  sepa- 
rate. The  open  pulpit,  the  public  school,  the 
daily  newspaper — the  party  platform — the 
railroad  and  the  telegraph,  are  so  many  stir- 
rers, which  at  no  distant  day  promise  to  make 
us  a  homogeneous  people.  All  patriots  will 
pray  that  the  composite  American  character 
may  be  a  chivalrous  one  in  the  highest  sense. 
Have  not  Christians  a  peculiar  interest  in  this 
result  ?  Can  we  leave  chivalry  out  of  our  re- 
ligious culture,  without  having  a  defective 
result  ?  Christians  speak  of  their  Master  as 
their  brother.  They  bring  Him  down  to  their 
side.  They  delight  to  think  of  Him  as  walk- 
ing with  them  in  the  paths  of  life  and  sharing 
their  daily  struggles.     It  is  a  beautiful  and 


222   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

comforting  conception.  But  is  there  not  an- 
other? That  brotherhood  also  lifts  them  to 
His  side.  He  is  a  Prince.  If  they  are  His 
brethren,  they  are  children  of  a  King.  Their 
conduct  should  conform  to  their  high  rank. 
Noblesse  oblige.  In  humble  discharge  of  daily 
duties,  one  may,  by  sweet  serenity  show  a 
loyalty  to  high  lineage — 2.  spirit  of  other- 
worldliness — which  will  make  his  simplest 
action  noble  and  his  "  meanest  work  di- 
vine." 

The  character  of  Christ  is  strikingly  distin- 
guished from  the  highest  ideals  of  mere  hu- 
man creation  in  another  feature.  In  our  por- 
traitures, we  make  a  clear  difference  between 
the  manly  and  the  womanly  model.  In  much, 
they  are  so  distinct  as  to  be  contrasted.  The 
traits  we  call  by  the  two  names  are  as  differ- 
ent from  one  another  as  womanly  beauty  of 
face  and  form  from  the  manly  type  of  both. 
It  is  counted  a  reproach  for  a  man  to  be  fem- 
inine, or  for  a  woman  to  be  masculine. 
Raphael,  in  his  "School  of  Athens"  has  been 
thought  by  some  to  have  exceeded  the  paint- 
er's license,  in  representing  some  of  his  men 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF      223 

with  the  features  of  women.  In  our  family 
discipline,  the  models  held  up  for  our  boys 
are  always  men,  and  for  our  girls  they  are 
always  women.  We  would  no  more  propose 
Robert  Lee  as  a  pattern  for  the  latter,  than 
Mary  Lee  for  the  former.  Yet  we  feel  no  in- 
congruity in  pointing  both  sexes  to  Christ  as 
an  example  of  the  highest  excellence.  This 
is  another  mark  of  the  loftiness  and  eternity 
of  the  Christian  ideal.  The  Master  Himself 
tells  us  that  in  heaven  they  neither  marry  nor 
are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels 
of  God.  In  that  higher  sphere  all  that  is  tem- 
porary and  provisional  disappears.  The 
diamond  there  is  divested  of  its  setting. 
Whether  it  came  from  a  wedding  ring  or  a 
sword  hilt,  it  flashes  out  with  the  same  splen- 
dour. Christ's  character  on  earth  was  con- 
nected with  the  shop  and  the  synagogue,  but 
it  was  the  same  which  now  shines  out  among 
the  seraphim  ;  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever. 

Seeing  then  that  the  portrait  drawn  in  the 
gospels  is  universally  reverenced,  while  it  is 
so  unlike  that  which  our  race  admires,  the 


224       THE  GREAT  TEACHER   HIMSELF 

contradiction  involved  need  not  put  us  to 
permanent  mental  confusion.  The  inquiry  is 
aside  from  our  purpose,  but  we  may  suggest 
that  human  nature  is  complex,  including  a 
higher  and  lower  self.  We  have  every  day 
judgments  for  passing  events,  and  we  have 
solemn,  deliberate  judgments  for  august  oc- 
casions. The  two  are  not  always  harmonious. 
Our  secular  heroes  are  apt  to  be  mere  en- 
larged projections  of  ourselves,  like  the  spec- 
tres of  the  Brocken.  But  our  divine  hero  is 
an  image  from  heaven.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  two  conceptions  appears  to  be 
largely  in  the  place  assigned  to  the  gentler 
virtues  in  the  two,  and  also  to  the  different 
idea  of  courage  embodied  in  them.  Napoleon 
at  the  bridge  of  Lodi,  or  Winkelried  at  Sem- 
pach,  is  the  expression  of  the  one  view.  The 
courage  of  Christ  is  of  a  higher  type. 
"  Strength,"  says  Carlisle,  **  is  best  shown  not 
in  spasms,  but  in  stout  bearing  of  burdens." 
It  takes  a  finer  manliness  to  endure  in  pa- 
tience the  malice  of  evil  men,  than  to  rush 
upon  a  hostile  rank.  The  British  line  at 
Waterloo  showed  a  rarer  fortitude  in  standing 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER   HIMSELF       225 

under  fire  for  hours  without  flinching,  than  in 
the  final  dash  at  the  supreme  moment,  which 
swept  away  the  broken  foe.  The  idea  that 
meekness  is  inconsistent  with  manliness  is  a 
fallacy  resulting  from  taking  self-control  for 
weakness,  as  if  in  mechanics  one  should  take 
equilibrium  for  rest.  There  are  two  things 
one  cannot  injure  by  a  blow,  a  mountain  and 
a  mote.  There  are  two  beings  one  cannot 
insult  by  reproach — a  baby  and  an  archangel. 
Both  are  meek,  one  is  strong.  The  loftiest 
natures  are  both  gentle  and  brave.  The  Scot- 
tish ballad  made  Douglas  tender  as  well  as 
true.  Dr.  Gessner  Harrison's  definition  of  a 
gentleman,  was  that  he  was  a  gentle  man. 

We  have  thus  gotten  some  glimpses  of  the 
Great  Teacher  as  delineated  by  those  who 
were  with  Him.  Two  of  them  were  His  pu- 
pils, and  two  were  so  near  to  His  daily  as- 
sociates that  their  record  is  practically  that  of 
eye  witnesses.  We  may  well  believe  that  the 
society  of  such  a  teacher,  the  observation  of 
His  daily  life  in  every  detail  was  a  commen- 
tary on  His  spoken  words,  explaining,  ex- 
panding and  enforcing  them.     The  simple 


226   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

narrative  of  the  few  of  these  smaller  incidents 
which  were  preserved  is  full  of  pathos.  "  Jesus 
hungered,"  "Jesus  wept,"  "Jesus  looked  on 
Peter."  If  these  words  have  such  a  world  of 
meaning  for  us  who  read  them  after  nineteen 
centuries,  what  must  the  acts  have  meant  to 
those  who  saw  them  !  Christ's  words  "  blessed 
are  the  merciful,"  must  have  had  new  and 
never  forgotten  meaning  to  those  who  shortly 
after,  saw  Him  touch  the  bier  at  Nain  and 
give  back  to  the  weeping  mother  her  only 
son.  Christ's  example  magnifies  the  impor- 
tance of  the  personality  of  the  teacher.  The 
matter  taught  and  the  method  of  conveying 
it  are  not  all.  The  teacher  himself  counts  for 
a  great  deal.  Christ  said,  "  I  am  the  truth." 
No  written  page  or  spoken  sermon  could  take 
the  place  of  the  living,  moving  incorporation 
of  the  truth,  seen  in  Himself.  The  highest 
truths  must  be  personified,  to  be  fully  com- 
prehended. There  is  such  a  thing  as  living 
our  lessons  before  our  pupils.  It  may  be  a 
mark  of  immaturity,  but  learners  are  always 
less  impressed  by  the  abstract  than  by  the 
concrete.     When  the  great  sage  was  asked. 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF       227 

what  is  motion  ?  he  might  have  gone  into  a 
disquisition,  which  would  have  made  his  own 
reputation,  while  it  left  the  inquirer  in  a  state 
of  admiring  ignorance.  He  did  not  do  this, 
but  merely  arose  and  walked  across  the  room, 
saying,  "  you  see  it." 

The  teacher's  life  may  not  only  be  valuable 
as  a  commentary  on  his  teaching,  but  the 
very  warp  and  woof  of  his  lessons  may  take 
a  tinge  from  his  character.  I  have  heard  it 
asked  sarcastically,  "  Is  there  such  a  thing  as 
Christian  mathematics  ?  "  "Is  there  a  Meth- 
odistic  demonstration  of  the  binomial  the- 
orem ?  "  To  the  surprise  of  the  inquirer,  we 
may  answer,  yes.  A  demonstration  may  be 
slovenly  and  in  bad  taste  ;  it  may  be  careless 
and  therefore  defective  ;  it  may  be  forced  and 
so  fallacious.  A  slovenly,  careless,  illogical 
demonstration  is  unchristian.  The  teacher 
who  daily  sets  before  him  as  a  part  of  his 
religion,  the  striving  for  the  things  that  are 
lovely  and  true  and  honest  will  make  his 
mathematics  graceful  and  sound,  and  so, 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  Christian  mathe- 
matics.    Are  not  those  in  error  who  regard 


228   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

any  part  of  science  as  beyond  the  domain  of 
ethics?  The  true  can  in  thought  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  beautiful  and  good,  but  not  in 
practice.  The  Principia  of  Newton,  or  the 
Analysis  of  Sturm  or  Poinsot  awaken  in  the 
competent  student  not  only  satisfaction  with 
the  logic  but  a  sense  of  the  beautiful  and 
often  the  sublime,  just  as  the  Pantheon  satis- 
fies the  engineer  by  its  stability,  while  it  fills 
the  soul  of  a  poet  with  its  grace  and  rich- 
ness. If  I  may  be  pardoned  for  personal 
reference,  the  culture  given  by  the  study  of 
Greek  and  that  of  the  mixed  mathematics 
seemed  to  me  to  be  much  the  same.  A  play 
of  Sophocles  and  the  Lunar  Theory  were 
much  alike  in  the  faculties  they  appealed  to 
and  helped  to  discipline.  E^ch  exercised 
both  reason  and  taste,  and  each  demanded 
earnest,  strenuous  effort.  Science  is  every- 
where penetrated  by  the  moral  qualities  of 
the  teacher.  His  work  and  words  are  him- 
self. A  noble  man  transfuses  his  nature 
largely  into  his  teaching,  and  happy  are  the 
students  who  walk  with  him.  For  the  high- 
est form  of  education,  one   must  therefore 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF      229 

touch  and  enter  the  life  of  a  great  man 
Familiarity  does  not  breed  contempt,  except 
it  be  with  people  really  contemptible.  Great 
teachers  are  like  the  great  mountains.  To 
be  fully  known,  they  must  be  seen  near  at 
hand,  as  well  as  afar  off.  The  distant  view 
reveals  the  g^and  outlines  and  the  compara- 
tive height.  The  nearer  aspect  opens  up 
characteristic  details  and  interesting  peculi- 
arities. The  tourist  looking  from  the  top  of 
Righi  admires  the  Alps.  The  Swiss  moun- 
taineer loves  the  Alps.  So  a  really  great 
teacher,  admired  and  honoured  by  the  dis- 
tant public,  loses  not  by  the  near  approach 
of  his  pupils,  but  warms  their  admiration  into 
affection. 

The  importance  of  the  teacher  himself  as  a 
factor  in  Education  is  made  more  obvious, 
when  we  abandon  the  ordinary  narrow  mean- 
ing of  the  word  and  rise  to  the  thought  that 
Education  includes  the  discipline  of  the  en- 
tire man,  heart,  head  and  hand,  and  fills  the 
whole  life,  not  merely  a  few  school  years. 
The  catalogue  of  any  university  is  largely 
taken    up — naturally  and   rightly  so— with 


230       THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

what  concerns  the  intellect;  the  subjects 
taught,  the  methods  pursued,  the  text-books 
used.  But  we  all  know  that  a  student  gets 
a  vast  deal  more  at  college  than  what  is 
taught  in  the  lecture-room  or  learned  in  the 
study.  The  large  life  outside  of  the  lecture- 
room,  the  association  on  equal  terms  with 
picked  young  men  from  all  parts  of  the  land, 
each  one,  like  himself,  the  centre  of  interest 
to  a  distant  household,  and  representing  their 
social  status :  this  attrition  polishes  his  man- 
ners, enlarges  his  sympathies,  removes  nar- 
rowness and  bigotry.  He  meets  his  fellows 
in  the  classroom,  in  the  debating-hall,  and  at 
the  dining-table.  He  is  learning  how  large 
the  world  is,  and  how  small  his  native  village 
appears.  There,  too,  is  the  athletic  field. 
When  properly  conducted  it  is  a  training- 
ground  for  the  mind  and  heart  as  well  as 
the  body.  It  may  develop  self-control,  cour- 
age, patience  and  a  high  tone  of  honour 
and  truth,  if,  as  the  directors  should  aim 
to  bring  about,  the  contestants  prefer  de- 
feat to  unfair  advantage.  Thus  the  college 
diploma  represents  but  a  small  part  of  what 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER   HIMSELF       231 

the  college  does  for  him.  The  fine  col- 
legian is  a  rounded  man  ;  in  mind,  a  scholar ; 
in  manners,  a  gentleman  ;  in  body  an  ath- 
lete ;  in  all  things  a  Christian.  The  pro- 
fessor's duty  does  not  consist  of  his  lecture 
merely.  If  that  were  all,  we  might  replace 
him  with  a  phonograph.  The  assembled 
class  might  see  upon  the  platform,  not  a 
living  form,  but  a  machine  charged  with  the 
wisdom  of  Kant  or  Hamilton  or  Helmholtz. 
But  the  '*  vox  et  preterea  nihil "  would  never 
do.  We  need  the  flash  of  the  eye,  the  wave 
of  the  hand  or  the  stamp  of  the  foot,  giving 
emphasis  and  life  to  the  utterance.  The 
teacher's  duty  too  does  not  cease  with  his 
lectures.  Some  of  his  most  enduring  work 
is  done  outside  of  his  lecture-room.  His 
daily  walk  before  the  student  body,  his 
cheery  greeting,  his  word  of  courage  to  the 
faint  and  of  warning  to  the  erring  constitute 
no  small  part  of  his  value  to  the  institution. 
What,  I  may  ask  of  the  older  men  present,  of 
all  the  impressions  made  upon  us  at  college 
do  we  retain  most  vividly  now?  Are  they 
the  demonstrations  and  lessons  of  the  recita- 


232   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

tion-room,  or  the  memories  of  our  teachers 
and  of  the  friends  we  made  and  kept  ?  The 
most  of  us  have  vivid  pictures  of  the  splendid 
men  who  taught  us,  but  very  dim  ones  of 
much  of  their  teaching.  At  our  alumni 
meetings,  the  speeches  of  the  old  boys  are 
full  of  personal  reminiscences,  but  contain  no 
hint  of  those  valuable  lectures.  It  has  been 
so  always.  The  teacher  himself  is  more  than 
his  message.  We  know  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby, 
by  his  pupils'  loving  description  of  him  and 
his  ways,  but  Tom  Brown  has  forgotten  all 
about  the  doctor's  elaborate  views  of  ut  and 
the  subjunctive ;  the  doctor  was  a  real  pres- 
ence to  his  boys  throughout  their  lives.  To 
them,  Arnold  was  Rugby  and  Rugby  was 
Arnold.  When  we  read  his  sermons  to  his 
pupils — and  good  manly  talks  they  are — they 
do  not  suggest  to  most  of  us  the  greatness  of 
the  man.  What  is  that  nameless  atmosphere 
that  surrounds  a  truly  lofty  character;  that 
electric  aura  that  can  neither  be  denied  nor 
explained  ?  It  is  not  great  mental  power,  nor 
strong  will  nor  saintliness.  Perhaps  we  shall 
have  to  go  beyond  this  world  to  find  the  secret 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF      233 

Among  our  prominent  teachers  in  Virginia 
two  generations  since,  was  a  man  who  in  his 
way  was  as  remarkable  as  Thomas  Arnold. 
I  refer  to  Gessner  Harrison — a  name  hon- 
oured by  thousands,  including  many  who 
never  saw  him.  A  scholar,  original  and 
advanced,  he  revolutionized  the  teaching  of 
Latin  and  Greek  in  this  land.  Trained  in  the 
formal  methods  of  the  English  school,  he 
early  discerned  and  became  familiar  with  the 
superior  insight  and  freedom  of  the  German 
scholars.  He  made  use  of  their  results  years 
before  they  were  mentioned  in  any  lecture- 
room  of  our  own  country  and  when  they 
were  unrecognized  in  many  schools  of  Ger- 
many itself.  He  became  famous  as  a  teacher, 
but  was  quite  as  remarkable  as  a  man.  His 
simplicity  of  manner,  kindliness  of  speech  and 
act,  his  thoughtful  regard  for  the  young  and 
his  unselfish  labour  for  others,  converted  re- 
spect for  the  scholar  into  love  for  the  friend. 
Doctor  Harrison  was  a  very  decided  man 
in  all  his  convictions.  He  was  passionately 
devoted  to  the  South  in  the  days  leading 
up  to  the  war  between  the  states.     He  would 


234       THE   GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

have  been  called  an  extremist  by  some.  Yet 
when  just  after  the  first  battle  of  Manassas, 
certain  wounded  Northern  prisoners  were 
brought  to  Charlottesville  to  be  cared  for,  he 
was  seen,  with  his  Bible  under  his  arm, 
quietly  seeking  these  poor  fellows,  trying  to 
relieve  their  misery,  and  point  them  to  a 
Saviour.  He  was  a  conspicuous  example  of 
the  teacher  himself,  humbly  imitating  the 
model  set  by  his  Master. 

If  I  desired  an  instance  nearer  our  own 
time,  I  need  not  go  beyond  your  own  uni- 
versity grounds.  There  walked  among  these 
scenes  a  few  years  since  a  great  man,  whose 
memory  should  ever  be  a  precious  heirloom 
of  this  institution.  He  was  remarkable  for 
the  extent,  variety  and  accuracy  of  his  knowl- 
edge. In  his  day  it  was  quite  possible  for  a 
man  to  be  a  master  in  several  departments. 
Now  a  small  section  of  one  department  must 
engross  his  labour,  if  he  wishes  to  speak  with 
authority.  Learning  was  telescopic  then. 
Now  it  is  microscopic.  The  old-time  men 
had  a  wider  range.  Doctor  Landon  Garland 
was  a  mathematician,  a  physicist,  an  astrono- 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER   HIMSELF       235 

mer,  a  mineralogist  and  botanist,  proficient 
in  all  and  remarkable  in  some.  It  was  how- 
ever in  a  sphere  beyond  this  that  his  greatest 
work  lay.  His  wisdom  in  council,  his  dignity 
and  seriousness  in  public,  his  simplicity  and 
sincerity  in  private  relations,  all  crowned  by 
his  steady  devotion  and  consistent  piety, 
united  to  form  a  character  unique  and  in- 
fluential. Long  will  he  be  remembered. 
His  opening  addresses  each  year  in  your 
university  chapel  should  be  preserved  and 
heeded.  Hundreds,  who  came  under  his  in- 
fluence here,  will  cherish  a  loving  regard  for 
his  worth,  coupled  with  admiration  of  his 
intellectual  strength.  While  he  lived,  he 
was  your  grand  old  man,  the  Gladstone  of 
your  academic  circle  and  of  the  Methodist 
Church  South.  Among  the  conspicuous  men 
who  have  served  Vanderbilt  University  in 
board  or  faculty,  none  stand  higher  than 
Landon  Cabell  Garland. 

Did  time  allow,  I  might  speak  of  Tutwiler 
of  Alabama,  Thornwell  of  South  Carolina, 
Broadus  of  Kentucky  and  a  distinguished  list 
besides,   who   in   their   lives   illustrated   the 


236   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

thought  suggested  to  us  by  the  example  of 
Christ,  that  the  personality  of  the  teacher  is 
a  most  important  factor  in  the  result  of  his 
work. 

It  is  timely  to  say  that  the  American  col- 
lege teacher,  at  least,  must  be  more  than  an 
expert  in  the  subject  he  teaches.  Our  gov- 
erning Boards  do  well  to  look  beyond  the 
candidate's  diplomas  and  list  of  published 
papers.  The  American  teacher  must  know 
his  specialty  and  how  to  teach  it,  but  he  must 
be  a  man  fitted  by  character,  manners  and 
proper  respect  for  youth  to  be  trusted  with 
the  training  of  our  sons.  No  skeptic  or  im- 
moral man  should  have  access  to  these  young 
lives,  with  the  sanction  of  our  Boards  of 
Trustees.  Freedom  of  thought  always,  but 
freedom  of  conduct  never.  The  academic 
liberty,  for  whigh  some  are  loudly  contend- 
ing, means  apparently  in  some  cases,  freedom 
to  mislead  and  destroy.  If  we  can  have  the 
right  men  in  our  teachers'  seats — men  who 
may  be  safely  followed  by  our  boys  in  con- 
duct as  well  as  in  learning,  questions  about 
the  Bible  in  schools  become  easy  to  settle. 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF       237 

The  living  Epistle  will  be  known  and  read  of 
all  the  pupils. 

We  have  tried  in  these  studies  to  present 
Christ  as  the  centre  of  science — a  place  that 
belongs  to  Him  as  the  Lord  and  Maker  of  all 
worlds.  We  have  attempted  to  show  that 
the  greatest  things  in  the  book  which  reveals 
Him  to  us  are  in  accord  with  the  soundest 
science  both  as  to  fundamental  truths,  and 
the  moral  qualities  inculcated.  We  have  es- 
sayed to  point  out  that  the  teachers  of  science 
may  get  valuable  lessons  in  their  profession 
from  the  study  of  the  Master's  example.  We 
have  ventured  to  look  aside  from  the  lofty 
theme  of  His  mission,  the  salvation  of  the 
world,  and  we  think  we  have  found  that  this 
sublime  strain  is  attended  by  subordinate 
harmonies  of  this  lower  world,  and  that  Christ 
is  Lord  of  matter  as  well  as  of  spirit.  The 
recognition  of  this  grand  unity  of  creation, 
with  Him  as  the  head,  is  plainly  advancing 
among  men  to-day.  His  sceptre  bids  fair  to 
stretch  over  the  Orient.  No  one  will  be  sur- 
prised, if  the  great  movements  of  our  day 


238   THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

should  make  of  Japan  a  great  Christian  peo- 
ple. Then  China  will  follow,  and  as  once  be- 
fore the  Wise  men  came  from  the  East,  so  the 
faith  of  these  Western  lands  may  in  their  turn 
be  quickened  and  purified  by  messengers 
from  these  new-born  kingdoms  of  our  Lord. 

It  will  be  a  glorious  day  when  the  recogni- 
tion of  Christ  as  the  Master  of  all  worlds,  the 
source  and  support  of  all  activity  in  all 
spheres,  shall  be  complete ;  when  we  shall  not 
only  admit  but  realize  that  we  may  serve 
Him,  and  must  serve  Him  if  we  would  suc- 
ceed, in  the  laboratory  and  the  gymnasium 
as  well  as  in  the  closet  and  the  church  ;  that 
whatever  we  do  well  is  done  for  Him.  His 
name  may  not  be  mentioned,  but  His  spirit 
will  be  in  the  act.  Life,  in  all  its  details  will 
be  service.  It  will  be  lifted  to  a  higher  plane. 
Our  daily  work  will  be  better,  because  it  is  no 
longer  toil,  but  obedience. 

Christian  believers  are  sometimes  depressed 
in  these  days,  because  of  the  skeptical  tone  of 
much  of  our  literature — the  hostility  of  some 
leaders  in  science  and  the  indifference  or  even 
the  loose  conduct  of  some  who  are  classed 


THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF       239 

as  Christians.  Nominal  Christians  are  so 
numerous,  and  nations  called  Christian  are 
so  faulty.  We  must  not  judge  too  hastily, 
or  take  a  few  perhaps  as  specimens  of  all. 

Judging  of  our  world  by  what  is  true  of 
large  communities,  we  may  say  that  never 
were  there  so  much  mercy  and  love  in  the 
world  as  now.  We  have  more  Bibles,  more 
churches,  more  missionaries,  more  hospitals 
— more  sacrifice  of  money  and  life  for  what 
is  good.  Never  was  the  National  Conscience 
so  true  and  so  potent.  We  have  an  inter- 
national decalogue,  supported  not  by  force, 
but  by  the  public  sentiment  of  the  world. 
Acts  of  injustice  or  of  cruelty,  once  so  com- 
mon, between  nations,  are  now  well  nigh  im- 
possible. A  great  war  has  recently  been 
brought  to  an  end  by  the  pressure  of  the 
Christian  sentiment  of  the  world.  This  will 
grow,  and  some  day  wars  will  cease. 

The  movement  of  the  age  is  towards  Christ, 
not  away  from  Him.  The  supreme  rulers  of 
the  great  nations  of  the  world  are  nearly  all 
Christians, — two  of  them  are  pronounced  and 
active  followers  of  the  Master.     Never  before. 


240  THE  GREAT  TEACHER  HIMSELF 

since  the  Saviour  came  upon  earth,  has  Chris- 
tianity such  cause  for  gratulation  as  now.  The 
Christian  to-day  feels  that  he  belongs  to  a 
living,  growing,  triumphant  cause.  The  signs 
of  the  time  are,  to  him,  full  of  encouragement. 
It  is  not  so  much  the  growth  of  any  one  de- 
nomination, as  the  growing  union  of  all  de- 
nominations, which  is  the  striking  feature  of 
the  Christianity  of  our  day.  The  followers  of 
the  Lord  are  touching  elbows.  The  great 
convention  in  Carnegie  Hall  early  in  this 
year  1906,  and  the  more  recent  gathering  of 
the  young  Christian  manhood  of  our  Country 
in  your  own  city  of  Nashville,  were  a  revela- 
tion even  to  the  men  who  took  part  in  them 
and  stirred  the  hearts  of  Christ's  followers  all 
over  the  earth. 

The  sound  thinkers  of  the  world  are  more 
and  more  turning  towards  Christ.  Skepti- 
cism is  less  arrogant  than  it  was  fifty  years 
ago.  The  world  will  not  find  the  Lord  by 
wisdom — but  by  love. 

The  day  is  already  dawning  when  fair  sci- 
ence will  cast  her  crown  at  His  feet,  and  hail 
Him  Son  of  Mary  1  Son  of  God  ! — of  whom 
and  through  whom  and  to  whom  are  all 
things. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


JflN  7    7949 
MW  S     1955 


m 
s 

BBfO 


tv 


tflj 


MAR  1  (i  iggL 

Form  L9-25»i-9,'47(A5618)444 


3   1158  00669  514 


^^F 


..r  CO.  ITUCD^,  oc-,inNii   :  IRRARY  FACILITY 

1111  ii!ii!ii'ii'n!i'iiiiii!iir' 


A     000  605  638     6 


